


The Galactic Warrior of Halcandra

by incelghetsis (titanium325)



Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Backstory, F!Galacta Knight, Good fucking luck, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Lore Building, M/M, Mild Language, Multi, Other, Rule 63, Slice of Life, Worldbuilding, but to the reader instead of to a character, canons a bit messed up here but idc, i think that’s right??, its like implied alcohol in one chapter, let them drink goddamniy, no beta we die like sectonia, this probably counts as emotional torture, yes galacta knight is a woman shut up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titanium325/pseuds/incelghetsis
Summary: Kirby, our star warrior, defeats the fearsome Galacta Knight in battle. However, he fears for her safety after she is defeated, and so takes her back to Dreamland to recover and befriend everyone on Popstar. Though more may be revealed about Galacta and her past than any of them bargained for
Relationships: Galacta Knight/Morpho Knight, King Dedede/Meta Knight, Magolor/Mark | Marx
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	1. A Star in the Galactic Sea

The gleaming swordswoman towered over the battlefield. Her wingspan cast a dark shadow over the ground, blocking out even the flames of the ancient Halcandra. A child dared to stand his ground against her, a ruthless force of good against one of the most powerful to be known.  
‘’What do you gain from this…what are you trying to do, runt?” She scowled, brandishing her lance  
‘’JUST FIGHT!!’’ The child, a warrior of the stars named Kirby, yelled back. He adjusted his hat and lifted his sword, his face filled with determination  
‘’…Can barely speak. How sad’’ She tilted her gaze, not understanding what he was saying. She eyed the sword Kirby held ‘’Fine ability you hold though. I see you take after that shining knight in blue’’  
‘’DON'T GET META IN THIS!!’’ Kirby yelled again; eyes lowered in anger. The pink knight giggled  
‘’You care about him a lot. Don’t worry. Once I put an end to you, he’ll follow right up!’’  
The cruel knight began cackling, as she raised her lance to the air. Kirby readied himself, clutching his sword like his life depended on it. A crashing beam of light came glowing from the tip of her lance and started thrashing across the battlefield. It almost felt lie Kirby’s very vision of gravity was shaking, as he dodged and weaved between the lights devastating touch, taking whatever swings he could at the Galactic warrior. She cursed under her breath, and backed off, taking down the beam of light with her. Her wings perked, and she took to the air. Slicing the cold space in front, beams of energy started forming and blasting, from random points in the ground. The ground seemed to shake with each zap, almost blinding the poor child. He ran between the beams, floating every so often to get more hits on the enemy. He knew never to yield or surrender. Who knows what that would cost? 

"STUPID KID!! YOU’LL LOSE THAT ABILITY BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!!" She screamed, starting to grow desperate. Maybe she didn’t expect this kind of retaliation from someone so young? Kirby huffed and took a running start at the worn knight. Bad idea  
She grinned, rising suddenly, giving little time for Kirby to react. Within seconds, her lance had collided with his squishy body, sending Kirby flying. His sword ability was wiped from him, and the star containing it was drifting away towards the decaying Halcandra. 

"Barely able to take one hit without the copy ability being lost. Pitiful. Such is the tragedy of the young I guess’’ She giggled, grinding her foot into the ground, gripping her lance now with both hands. Those hands were shaking. Whether with fear or anticipation, it was clear she was losing her cool. Kirby landed across the field, his hand having barely grabbed onto the copy star that had formed from his sword ability. Without thinking twice, he ate it whole. Something about this caught the Galacta knight off guard, she pulled a few shocked faces while trying to comprehend how eating the star would get anywhere. But before she could ponder any longer, the copy star was sent flying back at her face. Knocked her out clean. Her mask flew off, landing a few inches away. Kirby, having worn himself out, sat down to recover. The stars shone much better just after a fight.  
‘’Pretty’’ he pondered to himself, lazily gazing at the stars. Then, he remembered.  
‘’a-AGH!’’ Kirby got up in a panic and dashed over to where Galacta lay. Her face looked oddly like Kirby’s. She looked battered and beaten, her hands still slightly shaking. Maybe he went a little hard on her…  
‘’s...sorry’’ Kirby apologised to her, patting her head just in case. He looked over to the mask, deciding to pick it up and rest it on the knight’s chest. Kirby then turned to the stars and called loudly for assistance. As if like clockwork, a power star floated down to his side. Kirby looked to the unconscious Galacta, and then to the power star. He then sighed heavily. 

Kirby finally pushed the knight onto the star, breathing heavily from such a workload. All that armour she wore made it so heavy. He then boarded the power star himself, sighing again. Tapping the star on the side, he decided his next location: Home.  
‘’LOOK!!’’ He cheered, adjusting Galacta to face upward so she could see the constellations passing by. The star rose from the ground and flew away with a glittery trail. Halcandra grew smaller and smaller behind the two flying through the cosmos. Kirby didn’t think much of it himself but did worry for the knight. Maybe she had a close connection with it? There was no way to make such judgements now though. The only thing Kirby knew to concentrate on was getting the Galactic Knight to his home. Maybe she could be helped there. I mean, she did need help. Something about her just seemed off. The other enemies he’s faced, they’ve all had their reasons for attacking. Whether just, tragic, or self-fulfilling, they all had goals they would’ve killed and died to achieve. Galacta seemed the same in some way. Galacta must have a reason. 

Popstar came into view, and Kirby’s face lit up. Home sweet home. The power star took its course straight for Dreamland, as Kirby struggled to keep the knight on the power star. Some part of her started slipping off every seven seconds.  
Dreamlands grassy plains rolled beneath the two, Kirby watching each denizen they passed by with awe. It’d been a while since he was back home, it sure was good to see everyone again. As the castle came into view, Kirby spotted Bandana Dee training out in the front courtyard. The training dummy had many spears shoved into it, and mild obscenities drawn onto different parts of its body. Bandana took notice of Kirby and waved from the courtyard, to which Kirby waved eagerly back. The power star rested at the castle doors, and Kirby shoved the knight off the star. She flopped onto the grass, still knocked from the copy star attack. Kirby began to really regret that  
He knocked loudly on the castle door, and called to be let in

‘’HEY!! DEDE!! META!! COULD SOMEONE ANSWER??’’ He yelled, a worried squeak in his voice as he held Galacta’s limp arm.  
‘’COMING KIDDO!!’’ A familiar voice rang from the left most tower ‘’META, COULD YOU GET IT??’’  
‘’Sire, I implore you, I have much work to do. You can go answer it’’ Another familiar voice spoke. This voice had a much stronger accent. Kirby recently learned that it originated in a land called ‘Mexico’.  
The two voices exchanged slightly annoyed sentiments about door answering repeatedly. They sounded like an ‘Old married couple’ as Marx would call them. Kirby didn’t have time for this. Not at all.  
‘’AAAA!! SOMEONES GONNA DII-IIEEE!’’ Kirby started banging on the door, making the most annoying wails possible. This got the soft-spoken voice to answer quickly  
‘’Kirby, I know it’s been a- WAUGH!!’’ Meta knight answered, and immediately backed up, drawing his sword. ‘’K-Kirby, why in the galaxy’s name did you bring Galacta knight here!’’ He asked, startled and slightly afraid. He was prepared to take on the swordswoman, but Kirby’s worried expression made him drop his hostility.  
‘’I beat her but...she isn't waking up...’’ Kirby had nearly started crying, tugging on Galacta’s limp arm and whimpering.  
‘’…. Its ok. Let’s get her inside’’


	2. The Next day of Many

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta Knight wakes up after a ruthless fight to a warm welcome from the residents of Dreamland. The king himself has a grand dinner planned for her arrival! Does she truly trust the people of popstar though...?

Light cascaded down from the open castle window. A sweet midday glow creeped across the stone floors, covered with grand carpets, the walls lined with tapestries. Galacta Knight lay in the bed of this guest room, one of numerous. More kept having to built as Kirby made more and more friends out of the enemy. A knock came at the door, but Galacta Knight couldn’t respond. She was still kind of unconscious. The door creaked open, to show a nervous looking Bandana Dee holding a cup of hot tea on a saucer. He made his way in slowly, taking each step one at a time. Galacta was extremely powerful, the last thing he wanted to do was wake her up and make her angry. 

‘’Bandana?’’ Meta Knight called from the doorway, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin  
‘’Uh, yes sir?? I brought the honey tea just like the king asked!’’ Bandana replied, trying to keep quiet as to not wake the sleeping knight beside him  
‘’Ah. I was wondering what you were doing here. Good job’’ Meta knight smiled from beneath the mask ‘’Did you make it?’’  
‘’No, the king himself did. Said something about ‘Dat poor girls gotta have a drink! Could never survive without mine!’’’ Bandana answered, attempting to mimic King Dedede and failing miserably.  
‘’How hospitable of him…’’ Meta Knight wondered. It seemed a little strange for someone like the king to go out of his way to welcome such an enemy ‘’You may retire. I can handle Galacta from here’’  
‘’YES!!’’ Bandana fistbumped the air and dashed across to the door. ‘’KIRBY!! CAN I SHOW YOU THE SPEAR THROUGH SEVERAL HEADS TRICK?!?!’’ He called across the castle. Meta knight smiled again and closed the door. ‘That young waddle dee should become fearsome someday’, he thought as he took the seat by the vanity, turning it to face the bed. He wrapped his blue cloak around him, just as the pink knight awoke from Bandana’s yelling. 

‘’Ugh…gods…’’ Galacta rose from the bed, rubbing her eyes. The smell of honey tea filled her nose, and for a moment she was filled with bliss. Then her eyes opened, and the sight of Meta Knight then filled her with rage. ‘’GAH?!?’’ she stumbled back ‘’WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE??! WHERE AM I!?!?’’ She screamed, but Meta didn’t shift one bit.  
‘’Castle Dedede. Kirby took you here quite charitably after your battle with him’’ he answered, and then he looked to the tea placed on the bedside table. ‘’The King made that tea for you. Does wonders to calm you down. I must say his skills in the kitchen are surprising’’ He remarked, smiling to himself  
‘’This is poisoned isn’t it.’’ Galacta Knight pointed to the tea, to which Meta Knight shook his head  
‘’Why would we do that? Drink up if you want to. I do advise it, but I wont force you’’ He said calmly, and Galacta Knight got the feeling he was being genuine.  
‘’Fine, but if this is poisoned, I’ll kill you’’  
‘’Good luck with that’’ Meta Knight giggled, to which Galacta scowled and picked up the tea and saucer. She went to lift her mask to drink it…only to find her mask was not there. ‘’I should mention,’’ Meta Knight started, but Galacta refused to let him finish  
‘’WHERE IS IT?!?!’’ She screamed again ‘’MY MASK, WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!?!’’  
‘’The armoury. Your weapon, shield and armour were battered beyond belief, so we are repairing it for you. It might take a while though, apparently the materials used haven’t been seen for eons’’ Meta Knight calmly explained, which made Galacta Knight rest back down on the bed.  
‘’I’m gonna owe a hell of a debt to you popstar prancers, aren’t i?’’ Galacta lamented as she started to sip the honey tea. Her face then filled with delight; the tea was delicious!! Meta Knight smiled warmly as she started to chug the cup. Positive energy beamed from her, and she seemed much more relaxed after. ‘’That… that was so good!! You said it was made by that king, right? Where can I thank him?’’

‘’YA CALLED?’’ A sharp voice rang as the door was swung open almost violently. A grand looking king penguin stood in the doorway with a huge grin.  
‘’Ah, your majesty, perfect timing’’ Meta greeted the king with a small bow, to which he laughed.  
‘’I keep tellin’ ya to cut the formals, Meta! Where’s Pinkie? Kirby’s been rattlin’ on about her for the past day!’’ Dedede walked in to see a peppier and more relaxed Galacta Knight  
‘’Uhm, your majesty-‘’  
‘’Just Dedede is fine, Pinkie! Good to see yer up and about. Proper sad seein’ you all beat up in bed like that for a whole day, Kirby must’ve done a number on ya!’’ He remarked with a hearty laugh.  
‘’Did you…say a whole day, Mr Dedede?’’ Galacta then asked, rather worried  
‘’Yeah, you were still breathin’ an’ all, but jeez, we were all so worried! You’ve been the talk of Dreamland!’’  
‘’I guess a planet destroying warrior would garner attention….’’ Galacta commented. She started thinking of what to do. Her weapons and armour were being repaired, so she couldn’t leave if she wanted to. ‘’Can I ask to stay here for a while? At least until the armoury is done with my stuff. I really can’t go anywhere without those things…’’ she asked, to which Meta and Dedede beamed.  
‘’Of course, Pinkie! Jeez, we’d love to have ya! Especially little Kirby, boy’s crazy about new friends!’’  
‘’That was kind of our plan from the get-go, sire’’ Meta knight said under his breath.  
‘’Take yer time to get ready, Pinkie! Kawasaki’s planning a great dinner for ya being here!’’ Dedede said, and Galacta Knight grew shocked  
‘’Mr Dedede, you really don’t have to do all this for me-‘’ She tried to explain  
‘’Yer a friend now Galacta! New friends always are a cause for celebration! Meta, sweetie, lets leave Pinkie to get ready. I gotta tell Kirby she’s awake’’  
‘’Sire, don’t call me that around other people….’’ Meta knight stammered, feeling slightly red under his mask  
‘’Ahhh, got it, got it!’’ Dedede laughed as they both left the room, which left Galacta to ponder all that she was just told. 

A whole day? Welcomed as a friend? A dinner? Something about this didn’t feel right. She couldn’t tell if she thought they were faking friendliness, or if she felt she just didn’t deserve all this. Galacta decided to just put those thoughts to the back of her head, and enjoy herself. Even if they were faking it, the joy from being welcomed still felt real. She got up and started stretching, sleeping for a whole day leaves your body in some weird places. Her arms almost felt plasticine, maybe she just slept on it weird. She looked to the mirror on the vanity, taking note of the craftsmanship. The mirror was lined with patterns and shapes that were so intricate they could only have been hand made. They told a few stories about Kirby’s travels. He is a great warrior of his own after all, his adventures must be documented somewhere. She saw small recreations of battles against cosmic jesters, tragic spiders and witches that turned him into a ball. Kirby really has gotten around. Maybe that’s why she was no match for him. She then looked to the mirror itself, and checked to see if she was injured anywhere. Seemed not. All the wounds from the battle healed spectacularly well.  
‘’Well what d’ya know, Dreamland has great healthcare…’’ She joked while checking the mirror. Her horns were still in place, wings still moving and everything. Spectacular. ‘’I should see Kirby. I don’t know why, but I feel like apologising. Maybe that tea did have something…’’ She thought out loud, before stretching her arms again, and shaking everything off.  
Galacta walked to the wooden door to the room and opened it slowly, to see Kirby stood in front, with a gift in his shaky hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i updated one day after i first posted. i am fuelled by pure diet coke and speedcore music


	3. A Fine Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta Knight spends some time with Kirby, rebuilding some form of trust after the fight. Dedede and Meta Knight discuss Galacta Knights place in history, and the welcome dinner is interrupted by an unfortunate guest

‘’Uh…Hi Kirby- ‘’  
‘’Mask!!’’ The young puffball greeted. His eyes were filled with positivity, and the box he was holding looked way too big for him.  
‘’Is…is that for me?’’ Galacta asked, trying not to sound awkward about the fact that this child kicked her to next week a day or so ago. Kirby grinned wider, forcing the box into her hands. He then nodded enthusiastically, and put his hands behind his back, waiting for her to open it.  
‘’Uhm…ok…’’ Galacta didn’t know what to do with herself for a second, but she slowly began to open the gift. It seemed about as big as her head, and it was anybody’s guess as to what this was. She opened the box to find a handmade mask inside. Cardboard cut and painted grey to resemble her own mask, glitter and glue pasted all over it. On the underside there was a note. One part of the note was in handwriting like a child’s, the other part had much more professional handwriting. The first part seemed to read like the speech babblings of kirby, the only word Galacta could make out was ‘sorry’. The second part read ‘(Translation: I am very sorry about your mask. Here is a new one I made myself! – Kirby, translated by MK)’.  
Galacta Knight beamed. Oh, this is too adorable. She immediately went to put the mask on, making sure to reassure Kirby as she did. It WAS kind of hard to put on.  
‘’Thank you, Kirby, I love it!’’ She said, and Kirby started jumping for joy, before running off babbling loudly. She recognised what he was saying as ‘’META!! SHE LIKES IT!!’’ and smiled warmly watching him go. ‘’This place. Its lovely’’ She murmured to herself, her warm smile beaming from her crude mask. 

Kirby ran down to Meta Knight, reading a hefty looking book in an off the wall room of the castle, what was a personal library.  
‘’METAAAA!! METAAAA GALACTA LIKED MY MASK!!!’’ Kirby yelled in delight, to which Meta looked up from his book and smiled.  
‘’Very good. I’m glad she liked it.''  
''YAY!!'' Kirby cheered, but then he looked back to the door he came through from, with a slightly worried look.  
''Say, I don’t think she would have much to do before dinner,'' Meta Knight stated ''She’s quite new to our planet after all. Would you mind giving her a tour of Dreamland?’’ Meta Knight asked, to which Kirby nodded enthusiastically, and ran out the door. Meta sighed quite happily and got back to his book. Unfortunately, he could only manage one more sentence when...

‘’HEY META!! Cooped up in here again?!’’ Dedede nearly rammed down the door, making Meta Knight jump out of his skin.  
‘’JESUS- Oh sire…just you…’’ Meta huffed, catching his breath after it nearly left for the other realm. He closed his book and rested it beside him, shuffling up as King Dedede collapsed next to him on the couch.  
‘’…That Pinkie huh? Thoughts?’’ Dedede glanced over to Meta, who showed a few signs of irritability  
‘’Quite frankly’’ Meta Knight stated ‘’I don’t trust her’’  
‘’Can’t blame ya’’ Dedede laughed slightly, shifting from leaning back with his hands behind his head, to a more serious and conventional sitting position. ‘’But Kirby wants to keep her around, so that’s what’s happenin’. Maybe the hospitality will make her more friendly to us. Can’t hurt to try, can it?’’  
‘’Hard to say, your majesty. I have been looking into things a little more though. I remember Star Dream saying that Galacta Knight was ‘A legendary swordsman from a forgotten time’, which means Galacta is from sometime long ago…so I’m trying to find any mention of her from old history books and the like’’ Meta Knight explained, picking back up the book he rested by him.  
‘’That would definitely explain the old-as-time-itself armour material. Seriously, literally nobody knew about that stuff when I asked around. Isn’t Magolor coming later tonight?’’ Dedede asked  
‘’Indeed, I asked them to bring some files from the times of the Ancients. I was thinking maybe that would hold something. The poor guy did look quite nervous about it though…’’  
‘’They might be able to provide an armour explanation. Jeez, what DIDN’T that guy know...’’  
‘’How to control an evil crown’’ Meta Knight joked, to which Dedede burst into laughter ‘’…Your majesty, weird question, How long until the dinner? I’m just awfully tired for some reason…’’ Meta Knight started instinctively leaning onto Dedede, attempting to sleep.  
‘’Five minutes’’ Dedede bluntly responded, to which Meta shot up.  
‘’GAGH!! I’ve got to go set the table!!’’ He ran out through the door, not giving another word  
‘’Heh, worrywart…’’ Dedede giggled before leaning back on the chair again ‘’…I should probably go get Kirby and Pinkie’’ he then muttered, and got back up, walking through the door quite calmly, scratching his back. 

Kirby gleefully dragged Galacta Knight up to the set dinner table. It seemed each minute she spent around him she understood his babbling a bit more. This time he was saying ‘’Food!! Food!! Kawasaki’s food good!!’’ through a mountain of ‘poyos’  
‘’I’ll take your word for it!’’ She responded happily, still wearing the mask Kirby made. Things had changed for her a lot in just a day. She felt…a lot different. Maybe a lot happier. Maybe a lot younger. She sat down at the table, next to a very hungry looking Kirby. Now that she thought about it, she was really hungry too. No surprise there, she hadn’t eaten in a day or so. Or maybe longer. Her memory was pretty fuzzy. A large, jolly looking orange chef, along with a conga line of waddle dees, started delivering the food to their table.  
‘’This looks…so good...’’ Galacta commented  
‘’That’s Kawasaki for ya! Cooking legend, apart from me!’’  
‘’Don’t bluff yourself up sire’’ Meta Knight joked  
‘’Yer all heart, Mettie’’ Dedede scowled jokingly as a waddle dee placed a comically large chicken on his plate ‘’Now THIS looks good!’’  
‘’A real special for such a momentous occasion, y’know!’’ Kawasaki said, with a rather proud look on his face. Galacta Knight had doubts about that statement but kept them to herself. She looked next to her to find Kirby had already eaten the starter, main course and dessert, and sat there with crumbs on his face looking ready for more. ‘So there’s definitely an alternate dimension in that stomach’ she thought to herself as she started her food. Galacta felt her face lift in joy, this was the greatest food she’s had in years, and these Dream land chumps get to eat it every day?!? She really struggled to believe it, but kept scarfing down every last crumb.  
‘’You look like your enjoyin’ yourself!’’ Dedede cackled, noticing Galacta Knights beaming face, still covered in a bit of glitter from the cardboard mask.  
‘’Aw, gods, absolutely!!’’ She said through a mouthful of food, almost choking a bit at the end  
‘’Watch yourself there pinkie!’’ He laughed quite heartily ‘’Can’t count how many times I’ve done that myself!’’

KNOCK KNOCK

A knock came at the castle doors, the knight and the king looked to each other, immediately knowing who it was. A waddle dee previously carrying fudge deserts hobbled over to the door room, and let the new guest in  
‘’The king is having a feast for a new guest, we do apologise!’’ The waddle dee explained, but the guest seemed more than fine with it  
‘’Dinner? Sounds great, I’d be willing to stay for a bite!’’ The new guests voice came from the entrance hall, and its familiarity made Galacta Knight perk up her attention.  
The new guest floated into the dining hall with a gracious flow to them, but slightly mischievous. Kirby immediately cheered, and the Knight and King seemed more than welcoming.  
‘’Do ya even have a mouth to eat this with?’’ Dedede joked, to which the guest cackled  
‘’Trust me, Mr majesty, I eat perfectly fine!’’

SMACK

The table rattled, and everyone’s attention pointed to Galacta Knight. She had stood up and slammed her hands on the table, now having a dark look on her face. She raised her hands and then turned to the new guest. She was on the verge of tears.  
‘’What the HELL, Magolor?!? I thought you were dead!’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting into the good stuff now, hope you stick around for more!


	4. The Unfortunate Vistor, and the Woman that Thought them Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magolor and Galacta Knight's discovery of each other ends bitterly, and Galacta has to revaluate many things. Magolor starts reminiscing about the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOO FINALLY DONE  
> This one took a bit of editing, as i didn't know where to go with it at a point  
> I hope its still good though!!

The room was cold. Sharp. Something in the air had gone sour. Galacta stared down Magolor, the mask Kirby had made dropped to the floor, and everyone saw the grit in her teeth. 

‘’Where were you?!’’ She yelled more than asked, and Magolor started sweating. ‘’I thought every ancient was dead and gone!!’’   
Dedede and Meta Knight looked to each other. Meta Knight looked deadly concerned, while Dedede had a look you would give to your cousin when your aunt started a fight at thanksgiving dinner. Kirby simply looked confused.   
‘’Gala…I heard you were sealed-‘’  
‘’DON’T TALK ABOUT THAT!!’’ She interrupted, choking back tears. ‘’I want answers. Where were you?’’  
‘’…The Lor Starcutter. On Halcandra, for a while.’’ Magolor explained, looking to the ground, nervously twiddling their hands.   
‘’Halcandra…that’s a ghost town though’’ She pondered out loud, trying to piece whatever she could together.  
‘’As I said, I was on the Starcutter. For a loooong while. Preserving ancient documents after the wipe of the ancients and such…’’ They attempted to explain.  
‘’And plotting to steal crowns from dragons!’’ Dedede yelled from the table, to which Meta Knight quickly shushed.   
‘’That…that too’’ They admitted ‘’You can’t say I wasn’t exactly in the right mind for the many years after’’  
‘’The MASTER CROWN?!?! LANDIA HAD IT??’’ Galacta Knight exclaimed, then threw her head into her hands and groaned. ‘’Oh my god…this is too much- YOU TRIED TO STEAL IT?!? THAT’S A DEATH WISH!!’’   
‘’As I said, I wasn’t in the right mind-‘’  
‘’Wasn’t in the right mind, by the sound of it you were downright suicidal!’’ Galacta Knight huffed in frustration and started stomping off. ‘’I’m going to the bathroom, nobody try to interrupt me!’’  
She marched off upstairs murmuring swears and curses that sounded ancient, some of which made Magolor flinch. Magolor now was looking back at the ground, nervous and guilt ridden. Something happened. Something had definitely happened. 

‘’…Magolor?’’ Meta Knight broke the dark silence of the room calmly, which made Magolor look up a little more hopeful ‘’Was there something that happened between you and Galacta?’’  
‘’...Yes, we knew each other. Back in the times of the Ancients, we studied sciences together and the like. She was quite young at the time; I’d say about as old as Kirby’’ They explained, their voice sounding slightly shaky.   
‘’Ey, ey,ey, calm yourself Egg, sit down, that was clearly not a pleasant discussion’’ Dedede made an attempt to calm Magolor down, which seemed to work as they sat down at the table and sighed, flicking their fingers on the files they brought.   
‘’Gala was…very different back then. Whatever you think of her right now, invert that. That was her back then. I can’t exactly say too certainly, but she was not the type to destroy planets or get sealed for her destructive power or call us major Zaranats’’ Magolor started to explain. The last word they shuddered while saying, it seemed to be one of the curses Galacta Knight muttered while marching upstairs. Ancient swears. King Dedede was going to have a field day with that. ‘’I don’t know what happened to her, and I don’t think she knows what happened to me. She’s…probably startled by seeing me after so long. As she said, it was thought that many of us were dead.’’   
‘’Would it be to do with that ‘Wipe of the Ancients’ that you mentioned earlier?’’ Meta Knight asked, already thinking of thirteen ways to resolve this problem.   
‘’Yes, indeed. The erasure of the Ancients, much to do with a matter most dark’’

The room fell silent. Dark Matter. 

‘’…Would ya like something to eat? Ya don’t look so good, egg’’ Dedede now broke the silence, and the topic at hand. He had a remarkable skill in changing the subject, but nobody thought he would be THIS good.  
‘’Yeah…something to eat would be good. Thanks’’ Magolors ears fell in worry and concern, their mind running with all sorts of possibilities of how Galacta could react. Galacta was nothing if not unpredictable. 

Galacta Knight was furious. Galacta Knight was distraught. Galacta Knight was upset. Galacta Knight was…relieved?  
Sitting and half sobbing on the floor in a grand castles upstairs bathroom was NOT the situation she ever imagined herself in when she first sold her life to knighthood, but its where she found herself now. Gods. GODS. Magolor?!?! NOW!?! ALIVE?!?! Her head was rushing, trying to process the absolute shipload of information and implications that came from Magolor simply being alive. Nova’s were still around, STAR DREAM was still around, now Magolor themself?!? More of the Ancients and their history survived than she ever realised. 

She still remembers the day that life on Halcandra was wiped without a trace.

Galacta started to look around the room, fixating on details in random places. A little groove in the stone ceiling shaped like a blunt edge of…something. The bathmat she was sitting on was intricately designed to be Dedede propaganda, which did not surprise her one bit. Her eyes that were overflowing with badly held tears were now drying up, and she kept trying to look around to keep her mind in the moment, instead of dwelling on the past. Her attention then pointed to a rather large and grand red dressing gown hanging from the door opposite her. She sat up from her crouched, near foetal position and reached to feel the texture of the gown. Holy shit, this thing is soft. Where did these popstar prancers get such luxury material??   
‘’I have to wear this. I just have to’’ She muttered as she took it down from a hanger on the door. It was way too big for her, but that made it weirdly comforting in a way. She stepped from the secular room into an upstairs corridor and started walking over to the dining room. Her eyes were still red from crying, and she had a hunch trying to keep the dressing gown on. Waddle dees greeted her as she walked past, to which she gave a small smile and nod back. She kept focusing on the small details in the castle, her mind kept running and she needed some sort of leash on it. Red tapestries, notes pasted in random places, training dummies, the like.   
When she finally got to the dining room, she decided to stay just outside. It would be WAY too awkward for her to come back in and try to explain herself before, so she opted to stay outside and eavesdrop. Conversations felt better like that, she had no obligation to say anything when outside of the discussion. She could simply listen. 

‘’…so, egg, if you’re an Ancient…’’ was the first thing she caught when she came to hear the conversation. Definitely the kings voice. There’s another reason to not go in, Galacta just stole his dressing gown. How the hell was she gonna explain that? ‘’…did you know Halcandra before it became what it is?’’ He asked, scratching his chin  
‘’Indeed I was. Beautiful planet that was back then, a real pioneer in magic and science. I was more on the science side of things, but I did dabble in the occasional magic with some help. One cannot really work without the other after all’’ Magolor began explaining, Galacta already starting to feel nostalgic ‘’It was almost a utopia, minus a few more corrupt figures. We paid them no mind, and I can’t tell if that was a good move or a damaging mistake’’  
‘’Depends,’’ Meta Knight began ‘’Were they dabbling in anything dangerous?’’  
‘’Some were, some weren’t. It was all really complicated, which I think was to a fault. You guys have it right, its really simple here. On a more complicated land, there’s more to go through to find what’s bad, you never had the time. I do miss those days though. I remember them like it was yesterday…’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now THAT was something eh?   
> I remember feeling my fingers just going ham on my keyboard when i knew what i was doing, which felt pretty good honestly  
> In the next chapter, we get a little honest look into the past, when Halcandra was a much better place...


	5. Looking to the Past - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Way into the past, in another dimension, on a now long gone planet. A plucky young girl and a Halcandran scientist both work on the prototype of a clockwork star, hoping for its job of granting wishes to come into fruition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW, this one took a while! I had to brainstorm a lot of ideas over the weekend where i couldn't update, but thankfully chuggaconroy's triple deluxe let's play pulled through for me and got me motivated to write this chapter! I hope you enjoy!

“MX MAGOLOR!!! I FOUND A WEIRD THING!!”  
A little girls voice called from afar, which made Magolor look up  
“Oh, Gala! Back from your trip outside?”  
“YEA YEA!! I found this weird thing! Do you know what it is?”  
The young pink girl held up a metal tool, standing on the tips of her toes and almost shoving it into Magolors face  
“This is...ah! I’ve been looking for this” Magolor took it from her hands and started fiddling with a few bits of machinery  
“What is it?” Gala asked, tilting her head.  
“A part of a prototype I’m making!” Magolor quickly exclaimed, rushing over to a different workbench  
“What’s a ‘pro-doh type’?” Gala asked, following a little more slowly  
“Ah, well, it’s the first machine I make. If the first one has problems, then I make better ones after it. It’s like the first sketch in a drawing!”  
Gala made a small ‘oooh’ sound, and looked to the workbench itself. The weird thing she found screwed into some contraption. She couldn’t make heads or tails of anything Magolor made, but it was so cool to watch them put things together like it was nothing.

“Mx Magolor...what’s the ‘prodohtype’ you’re making?”  
“Something very important Gala. You see my blueprints up on the wall over there?” Magolor pointed to a set of blueprints across the room. It was for a machine that had a smug face. Gala always felt that the face was insulting her “That’s a clockwork star, it’ll be able to grant wishes! Once I put this bit in, the star will be ready for testing!” Magolor smiled to themself, proud of this major achievement. Gala started clapping  
“YAAYY!! Can we go see it? Stars are so cool, I’ve always wanted to see one!” She asked gleefully  
“Hopefully! I don’t know how much testing will be allowed, or the capabilities of the star, but we can certainly visit it!’’ Magolor explained in restrained glee. Gala had always seen that scientists get extremely excited when things go to plan. If something thought to be impossible came to be possible, they would jump in glee and tell everyone around.  
“Did the mages help with the star, Mx Magolor?” Gala asked, and Magolor turned around to face her, with their hands clasped together  
“Indeed they did, wish granting is after all a more magical feat. You have NO idea how much magical studying i’ve had to do!”  
“So you know a lot about magic as well!”  
“Indeed I do, Gala! I have the firm belief that magic and science go hand in hand. To do good science, you need to know magic, and vice versa!”  
“Vice...versa” Gala muttered to herself, confused beyond belief but nonetheless fascinated. “But what about people like Mr Hyness? And Miss Francisca, and Miss Flamberge, and Miss Partizanne? They don’t really like science, do they?” she then asked, sitting up on a workbench, her legs swinging to and fro  
“Ah, yes. Unfortunately there are many that consider their art superior,” Magolor began “You can’t knock them on their skill, those mage sisters are talented ones. I do hope they embrace the scientific side of things someday, I can only imagine the possibilities!”  
“Mx Magolor, you’re dreaming again” Gala called out, throwing an eraser from the workbench at their head.  
“Ah. Yes. Sorry” They rubbed the back of their head sheepishly, then gathered up the parts they were fiddling and tinkering with, immediately rushing outside. Gala followed quickly, leaping off the workbench and instantly flopping onto the floor.  
“OW!!”  
Magolor scurried back in, worried, only to see Gala pulling herself up and rubbing her elbows while gnashing her teeth  
“Are you ok?” They asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern  
“All good Mag!” Gala smiled and ran out, giggling to herself. 

Halcandra was beautiful. Advanced technology breathed through the floors, fuelled by the thermal energy from its grand volcano. Many scientists and mages had worked tirelessly to keep the volcano from ever erupting. Mechanics and beams surrounded the two’s journey, as Gala dashed ahead excitedly. Magolor struggled to keep up, but made sure she was still in their sight.  
“WHERE’S THE CLOCKWORK STAR?? I WANNA SEE IT!!” Gala called from far ahead, waving and jumping to Magolor  
“Its!! Whew- Just to your left!!” Magolor yelled, out of breath from running (despite having no legs). Gala took a few seconds to use her hands to find her left, then ran in that direction. 

And so she came to the Clockwork Star. Its smug face in all its glory. It was kept in an underground lab close to the power generators, mainly because handling these kinds of things took a LOT of power. It was...a lot larger than she anticipated. All sorts of cogs, wires, tubes and accessories were attached onto its side, giving it a near otherworldly look. Gala took the silver lines walkway up to face it, only a fence and many incomprehensible control pads separated them.  
“Mx Magolor..?” Gala asked, staring at the details and textures in the gold on the star. Magolor only just stumbled in, dashing up to where Gala stood  
“Yes, Galacta?” they responded, still winded from the run  
“Is it supposed to be this big?”  
“Indeed. It needs to be so it can be sturdy”  
“But it was really small on the blueprint papers”  
“That's because it was to scale! We draw our concepts to scale so we can fit them on our papers. How much blueprint paper would I need to fit this entire thing?” Magolor joked, giggling to themself  
“About 20 sheets?” Gala answered, turning her head to Magolor, who didn’t expect her to answer sincerely  
“Ah..yes probably” 

“Does it have any other names?”  
“Eh?”  
“The clockwork star. That feels weird to say, like its an object”  
“Well...it is…”  
“But it looks like a person! I feel bad calling it an object name…”  
“How about you give it a codename?” Magolor suggested, to which Gala looked confused  
“What’s a codename?” She asked, raising an eyebrow  
“Well a codename is a shorter name scientists give to a thing they’re making. I do agree, Clockwork Star is a mouthful, and a codename would help us talk about it easier”  
“Ok so...i’m giving it a codename...and you’ll tell the other scientists what it is?”  
“Indeed! This codename could be a great contribution to this project, so choose carefully! Magolor warned. Gala started brainstorming, her finger and thumb resting on her chin, and her cheeks puffed out, almost a cartoonish portrayal of thinking.  
“Mx Magolor...is the clockwork star able to wake up? The blueprints showed its eyes open and stuff, but here they’re closed” Gala then asked, hand still on chin  
“Well with these parts we can finally power it on and test it. Why?”  
“I wanna tell the clockwork star its name. I think it deserves to know”  
“Oh?” Magolor was curious about this remark  
“I mean, if i was given a name and no one told me about it, I’d be angry. I don't want it to be angry” Gala then explained, resting her hands on her sides.  
“Well I'll have these parts implemented and we can get it to wake up. You must have a good name if you want to tell it to the star directly!”  
“Of course I do” Gala told them with a big confident smile. She leaned onto the railings between her and the star, while Magolor loaded up one of the control pad and placed the contraption in some type of tube. They pressed a significant looking button and robotic arms started to take and transport the component to the clockwork star. Gala watched them with awe, staring right at the little nuts and bolts that held the arm together. Once the object was loaded in, Magolor pressed another important looking button, and the clockwork star came to life. Steam started huffing and puffing, cogs whirred and lights came on. Its large eyes slowly opened, looking down directly to Gala, who stood there in awe and amazement. She closed her agape mouth and cleared her throat.  
“Hello! Its very nice to meet you!” Gala greeted the star with no fear. No amount of loud whirring noises or smugness in the face shook her from her stand.  
“My name is Galacta, but everyone calls me Gala. And your name is Galactic Nova!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was that? Comments and Kudos are always appreciated! Next chapter, we go back to Castle Dedede. Hopefully, some reconciliation is in order for Galacta and Magolor, eh?


	6. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in Castle Dedede, Magolor and Galacta finally try to catch up and reconcile. With a few shared after dinner drinks, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH BOY THIS ONE TOOK A WHILE. Between writers block n dreamsmp fanfic updates crashing the entire site, motivation was NOT expendable. It’s here though!! Hope you enjoy!

The table had been cleared by the end of that anecdote. Plates of finished food had been replaced by glasses of half drank juices and beverages, tension replaced by reminiscing.

“That’s how the Novas got their name. I have to be honest, it’s bittersweet still talking about them” Magolor finished that story, and sipped on their drink with a rather heavy sigh “It’s a shame that Nova ended up doing so much wrong, not just to Gala”  
“Ey, it was the Marx kid that did the real shit!” Dedede commented, Meta knight gently hit his arm and pointed to Kirby, who was trying to eat an entire glass. Dedede realised what he did and made a silent gesture of zipping his mouth shut, sheepishly smiling after.  
“I heard about that, the whole sun and moon thing. Not surprised, that Marx was always a bit unhinged. Is he still around? Like, do you guys ever still see him?” Magolor asked, looking up from the glass they held  
“He still comes round every so often to see Kirby. I can’t understand whatever Kirby’s is reasoning for remaining friends considering what happened but, Marx hasn’t caused any problems since. Keeps Kirby happy so I’m not totally opposed” Meta Knight explained.  
“Interesting...Kirby is an interesting specimen…” Magolor then pondered, looking to Kirby. He had put down the glass he was trying to eat and was now looking around the room. He fidgeted a lot, bouncing in the chair and messing with his hands, as if he wanted to get up.

“What is it, Kirbs?” Dedede rested his head on his hand, elbow on the table, and Kirby made a few noises, pointing to a nearby archway out to a corridor. “Go ahead then. Must be important, look like you’re about to pop somethin’!” Dedede joked and Kirby immediately ran from his seat to the corridor. He poked something behind the wall, to which a feminine yell reacted  
“GAGH!!- Kirby- oh gods- what do you want…?”  
Kirby cheered, Galacta understood it as “You’re here!!”  
“Oh, Gala?” Magolor got up from their seat “What are you doing out there? Got a drink out here for you!” They tried to sound casual, as if the breakdown just before didn’t happen. Gala slowly got up from her hiding place and walked out to the dining room, rubbing her eyes still. Magolors anecdote made her cry again, and she didn’t have her mask, so she made do with the arm not holding up Dedede’s dressing gown.  
“Wait a minute!! The hell you doin’ with my gown?!” King Dedede shot up, only for Meta Knight to bring him back down  
“I’m sorry, this was the only thing in the bathroom I went in...its really nice though, it’s soft” Galacta gave a small smile, sitting back down at the table  
“Hghm...fine...you can keep it for the rest of ya trip. Give it back when yer outta here though Pinkie!!” Dedede made that request while chugging his drink, and Meta Knight had a look that said ‘Here we go again…’  
“Thank you, your majesty!” Galacta smiled much wider now. She picked back up the mask Kirby made for her and put it on. A lot slower this time, as she didn’t want to get glitter on her face again.  
“...How have you been Gala?” Magolor asked, looking a little nervous.  
“Gobno, quite honestly” Galacta responded, sipping her drink. Magolor flinched again  
“Where in the galaxy did you get that filthy mouth?”  
Another ancient swear. King Dedede was taking vicious mental notes.  
“Ah, who gives one? Not like Kirby’s gonna understand” Galacta said while looking at the pink puffball. He had gone back to trying to eat the glass, though this time from the other end.  
“Yeah, true, but I’d rather you be more polite!!” Magolor started insisting, shaking their head.  
“Or what, eh? What’s stopping me? Fuck?? Shit??” Galacta started laughing, with Dedede soon in tow. Magolor looked more than a little frustrated  
“Please, Gala, you’re gonna change the entire age rating of this fic!!” They took another very tired sip of their drink.  
“What if I started mixing them up Eh??” She started combining Halcandran swears with modern swears rapidly, while Magolor tried desperately to stop her.  
“Shi-“ Kirby began, but nobody let him finish  
“WOOOAH there tiger, not at the dinner table,” Galacta’s arm swung around to shush Kirby “I’ll teach you these later, scare your grumpy dad there”  
“You will NOT!!” Meta Knight yelled, which made Galacta start laughing again. 

The laughter eventually died down, which let Galacta take another sip without choking. Magolor looked up from theirs and squinted. Gala really had changed.  
“Gala...everything ok?”  
“What? Yeah, I’m good, what’s up?” Galacta looked up, resting her chin on the back of her hand  
“I just….I missed you y’know? I can’t imagine how much you’ve seen and been through since we last spoke” Magolor looked down again, sighing. Galacta gained a smug smile  
“Awww, is the old mage worried? Let's get you to bed, the war’s over!” she joked.  
“Wha- I am NOT old!!” Magolor burst, slamming their fists onto the table. They sighed again, and started laughing with the others.  
Kirby asked something, something Galacta couldn't understand. The others understood it as ‘Do you still have that ship?’  
“The Lor Starcutter? Yeah I took it with me here, why?” Magolor tilted their head, intrigued. Kirby turned and pointed to Galacta Knight, who had her mouth agape since the words ‘Lor’ and ‘Starcutter’ were audible. Magolor then gasped.  
“Oh gods yeah, the Lor Starcutter is still going!” Magolor then assured in a slight panic.  
“Lucky it let you back in after you stole it” Dedede muttered, still half laughing.  
“You- stole the Lor Starcutter??” Galacta looked a little more than shocked, and a lot more than horrified.  
“Well it’s a very long story, I doubt you’d wanna hear it, y’know? I don’t know if I want to say any more on the matter” Magolor explained, trying to change the subject  
“Say more right now!!” Galacta gasped. “And you think i’ve changed…”  
“LISTEN, it was a while ago, I wanted the master crown from Landia, yadda yadda yadda”  
“You’re gonna tell me every second of this story when you can,” Galacta gave Magolor a stern look “You will” she almost threatened, which made Magolor a little more than concerned.  
“You...you wanna go see the Lor?” Magolor nervously asked, finishing their drink.  
“Hah! Is Kirby pink you cheeky bas-“  
“AHEM!!” Meta Knight interrupted Galacta Knights sentence quite suddenly.  
“Ahh, yeah yeah. ‘Course I do Mag. Where is it?” Galacta asked, laughing a little, finishing her drink too.  
“Bit of a ways from here, but we can probably make it. What’s the time again?”  
“It’s quite late,” Meta responded “but it’s a clear night, so we should be fine”  
That was all Galacta needed. She immediately ran from the table, through the corridor to the entrance doors. Kirby and Magolor both got up to immediately follow, while Dedede finished his drink. He slammed it onto the table, stood up and started running too. He grabbed Meta Knights hand and dragged him along too, who didn’t seem too pleased.

Galacta came to the grand castles entrance doors, with a few waddle dees running to open it. A few other murals of Kirby’s escapades were etched into this door as well. Robots...star rods...even Magolor was up here, etched in gold, immortalized in a door. They swung open slowly, revealing a beautiful night sky. Millions upon millions of stars and constellations were visible, with even other planets close by. She stood there, dumbfounded, analysing the precise locations of the stars and the distances between them. It’s been a long time since she could look up at the night sky, and it was beautiful.  
“Gala?” Magolor tried to get her attention, which made her snap out of the trance she was just in.  
“Uh- uh yeah?”  
“Lor’s just over the hill, I forgot I landed it so close” They laughed, pointing to a distant silhouette of a familiar-looking ship.  
And Galacta remembered something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I’ve taken the few full ancient words (swear words specifically) used in this fic from different swears in Russian! I always imagined the Halcandran ancient language sounding kinda Slavic. In the next chapter, another look into the past reveals Galacta’s first encounter with the Lor! Kudos and comments are always appreciated!!


	7. Looking to the Past - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta and Magolor take a look at the interdimensional ship of the ages: The Lor Starcutter. Before it's finished that is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY. FINALLY THIS CHAPTER IS DONE  
> Yeah, sorry if there seemed like a bit of a gap here, i've had HORRIBLE internet for the past few days. Turns out our old router was SIX YEARS OLD. So naturally, we got it replaced. Then i had MORE ISSUES because certain things had to be installed into my PC  
> Its not been a good week.  
> Hope this chapters good though!! Thank you for reading!!

“WOW!! This is the ship??”  
“Yup. The Lor Starcutter”  
Two figures stood on a walkway, within a deep volcano. Ahead of them was a grand looking blue ship.  
“It's so pretty!”  
“Pretty and practical! We’re hoping to get it to be able to travel between dimensions!”  
“Dih-men-shons?” Gala looked to Magolor, confused.  
“It’s a bit complicated to explain, unfortunately,” They sighed “It's like a different universe to our own”  
“You-Nee-Verse? That's the thing with every planet and star you know about right?”  
“Exactly! You’re learning quickly!” Magolor complimented, to which Gala grinned widely. The door on the side of the ship opened slowly and dramatically, a walkway forming from the platform to the ship itself. Lights came on either side, almost like a performance was starting. Gala immediately ran to the entrance to the ship, Magolor followed, struggling to keep up with her energy. The ship's inner lights flicked on as she entered, a blue hue with computers, panels, screens, all sorts surrounding them. Halcandran letters started scrolling on the main screen, many that she did not understand.  
“Oh, you’re still learning to read Halcandran, aren’t you? Can you read any of the words on the screen?” Magolor asked, making Gala walk to the panel in front of the screen, haul herself up, and take a long, close look.  
“Uhhh...I see ship up there! The one that looks like a wonky eye, that means ship!” Gala pointed out excitedly, her finger stretched out towards the top left of the screen. Magolor nodded and started clapping.  
“I think I can read that sentence... ‘This ship is made to bring knowledge and peace to the….the…’”  
“Cosmos! Those two mean cosmos! Like outer space!” Magolor assured. Gala nodded in understanding. “Very good job though, knowledge is quite complicated”  
“I see it a lot in your blueprints and reports. Memory” Gala grinned, turning around to face away from the screen, still sitting on the panel. Her legs didn’t reach the floor. As she rocked back and forth slightly, her legs swung to and fro.  
“This vessel is still in development, but I've seen it fly around before on test runs. I think it's the interior and interdimensional capabilities that still need work” Magolor started rambling. Gala tried her best to listen, but her concentration on her own plane of reality was starting to fade. She looked to the ceiling as Magolor talked, taking note of the intricate patterns that ran across it. Some of them looked like clever disguising of hidden buttons. Maybe they’re emergency buttons, if things got bad, then someone would press the hidden button, and whatever the button did would sort out the problem. Or maybe they’re buttons for hidden compartments, you’d push one and a drawer with something would pop out somewhere else? Maybe it would hide weapons, or food, or copy abilities, or-

“Are you listening, Gala?” Magolors voice snapped her back to the present reality. She looked down from the ceiling and Magolor seemed a bit miffed.  
“Ah, s-sorry Mx Mag…” She then looked down to the floor in guilt. Magolor patted her head with a sigh, making her perk back up.  
“It's fine. I don’t blame you, gods only know I’d get bored of me too if I had to deal with my own incessant rambling” They smiled, raising their hand from Gala’s head. She smiled widely and hopped off the panel.  
“I was just thinking, the patterns all up there, are they for something? Like, you could hide buttons and weapons and stuff in them!” Gala said excitedly, messing with her fingers.  
“You know, I don't think we have. That is a very good idea, I’ll mention it to the others!” Magolor answered, surprised at her intuition. 

They traveled around the ship, the little corridors and doors either being in progress or fake entirely. The ship itself almost felt alive, Gala and Magolor both getting messages within their heads from the ship.  
“THANK YOU, MAGOLOR AND GALACTIC PHENOMENON, FOR JOINING ME” a robotic voice in their heads boomed.  
“Now this is a clever part of the design. It has the ability to communicate with your mind!” Magolor explained.  
“Yeah, I can hear a voice in my head!! It's cool!!” Galacta yelled with glee, dancing around the slow-moving Magolor.  
Magolor closed their eyes with pride, puffing their chest, “That was of my own design” they declared, “Still working on the personality itself, but still pretty clever tech!”  
“Isn’t mind stuff connected with magic?” Galacta asked, to which Magolors bravado dropped  
“Yeah...I came up with the ideas, Mr Hyness...did the technical work...”  
“Is that bad? Mr Hyness seems nice”  
“Hm...it's complicated. You’ll understand with time” Magolor brushed off the conversation topic, turning around to head back to the main room of the Lor. Gala followed, a little puzzled with Magolors change of mood. She decided to not mention it. The screen in the Lor’s main room kept repeating the same text they had both read before. Seemed to be another issue.  
“Ah well, it’s a work in progress. At least the screen works” Magolor giggled. 

They both told the ship their goodbyes and left the vessel, the platform that brought them on disappearing without a trace. The lights went off one by one as they walked back up the walkway. Slowly but surely, the place shut down for the night. The two stepped out of the large doors to reveal a beautiful night sky, dotted with stars and planets far gone from their own. Gala looked up with amazement. This sky was one of her favorite things about this planet. Even with all the machine work and the volcano, the sky stayed so clear. She spent many a night naming planets, creating friendships and divides between them, and talking about them to whoever was closest by. She wanted nothing more than to soar through them, greet the planets she named, meet their denizens, all sorts. Magolor watched Gala’s gleeful reaction to the sky with contentment and a little envy. They wanted to work on this thing, finish that thing, sort out this that and the other, work out this problem, so many little things at once.  
All Galacta wanted was to be with the stars. 

Gala’s house was just next to Magolors, and a deal smaller. She stepped in yawning and switching on the light. She had a few bookcases, filled with different books (mainly taken from Magolors own library), stuff about language and science and learning. She picked up a small fiction book from the top row of one, having to stretch a little bit to reach it, and sat down on the bed. Magolor had already wished her goodnight, so it was safe to assume they were asleep. Which means it was safe to read much later than allowed. The story itself was a nice one. It was about a young alien disguised as a boy. His spaceship crashed onto a planet, and he had no way of getting back to his own planet. With the help of many kind people helping him fit into society, he was able to make his own life on the new planet. Even when he was offered a journey back home to his own planet, he refused, because he had made so many good friends on his new planet. Gala always liked this story, especially on re-reads. When you read something again, you know what's going to happen. There's a special kind of comfort in knowing what's going to happen and Gala really liked that comfort. A lot.  
She set the book down, sliding it beneath her bed. The light switched off, just as her head hit the pillow. She was too tired to question it. Within seconds, she was out for the night.  
A tired-looking Magolor lifted their hand off of the light switch, and quietly laughed to themself. They had to commemorate her ‘staying up past bedtime’ effort. With one last sigh, Magolor headed for their house.  
The lights in the sky shone brilliantly  
And soon it would be another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww. That was nice, wasn't it? God, it would be a tragedy if something bad happened to these wonderful people. Would be an absolute shame if something horrible happened!  
> I'm teasing. That's not coming up until much later. Stay tuned!  
> In the next chapter, a much older Galacta takes a look at the Lor Starcutter, with much more being revealed about her!  
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!!


	8. Journaling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adult Galacta visits the Lor Starcutter after many many years. Three magical sisters find their way to Dreamland, to visit their friend, but who they find is much more shocking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh? Longer chapter? Unheard of!  
> Yeah, I kinda went off a little bit with this, so the chapters like two times longer than any other. It was really fun to write though! I think I should start doing longer chapters to fit more content in, get what I really want to say in before the next chapter comes. That will come at the cost of chapters taking longer to come out, but I'm sure that sacrifice is worth it.  
> I hope you enjoy!!

The Lor was parked gently by a hill, its lights still shining like the stars in the sky. Galacta Knight looked on in pure nostalgia. The Lor Starcutter, in its finished state, simply looked beautiful.  
“HELLO GALACTIC PHENOMENON. IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU”  
A robotic voice oozing with familiarity rang in her head, and her face melted into a small smile.  
“The Lor still calls me that?”  
“I haven’t been able to change the settings, unfortunately. Wanna go in?” Magolor opened the way inside, gesturing Galacta to head in first. Galacta nodded and made her way up the walkway, Magolor and the rest following in tow.  
“This is...oh gods, this is just how I remember it” Galacta Knight exclaimed. She looked around the ship interior in absolute awe. This is just how she remembered.  
“Gods...Magolor its..”  
“Take your time, Galacta. It’s a lot to take in after so long. The Lor has had many improvements since you last saw it” Magolor explained, looking quite proud of themself.  
“GALACTIC PHENOMENON, YOUR EMOTIONAL LEVELS ARE UNSTABLE, AND OUT OF THE ORDINARY. IT IS WORTH YOUR TIME TO RELAX”  
“You don’t say, Starcutter” Galacta responded to the Lor’s analysis, looking a little awkward. “Think I just need to go to bed..”  
“‘GOING TO BED’ WOULD BE A SEVERE UNDERESTIMATION OF WHAT IS REQUIRED TO HELP YOU RECOVER”  
“Aw fuck..” Galacta huffed, “Magolor how do you turn that off??” She asked in slight distress  
“...Are you ok, Gala?” Magolor ignored her question, getting increasingly concerned. They put their hand on her shoulder, and tilted their head, like a parent that just found their child crying. Galacta’s heart sank slightly when she heard the old nickname ‘Gala’  
“Mag, I’m fine,” She said as she took Magolor’s hand off her shoulder “Things probably just faulty, machines do that, don’t they? Have faults and stuff?”  
“Well, if you insist. Dedede, Meta, Kirby, make sure she gets to bed tonight. I’ve known her to have a habit of staying up, not good for her at all” Magolor crossed their arms and shook their head cartoonishly, and Galacta flushed in embarrassment.  
“HEY!!” She yelled, “That was ages agoooo!!” Her teeth gritted in embarrassment, and her head turned to the side.  
“Just get some sleep tonight, okay Gala? Don’t stay up after bedtime reading!”  
“I’M NOT A CHILD MAGOLOR!!” She yelled, and then huffed, trying to turn her attention to other things. Magolor and the others shared a few laughs, before Magolor themself looked up and got an idea. 

“Oh!” They suddenly exclaimed “There’s a button up there. Familiar Gala?” Galacta Knight looked up to the ceiling of the main room, recognising the patterns and designs across it. A bit too high to reach though. She hopped up and started flapping her wings, taking to the button Magolor was pointing to. It was golden, in a line of other gold studs. You could tell that it was a button up close though, it had small grooves around it as if it was intended to be pushed down. She pushed it with intrigue, and the Lor’s voice rang in everyone’s heads.  
“GALACTIC DRAWER ACTIVATED”  
The ship shook a little bit, like something about the ship itself was changing. A few secret hatches opened, a few new shelves with items that stood the test of time stacked across them. This button had opened a veritable ancient museum. The least notable, but somehow the one that stood out the most, was a drawer by the main panel that contained an old looking journal. Magolor took notice of it immediately.  
“The- The Lore Book! Oh, gods, I forgot this was here!” They exclaimed. They rushed over to the drawer, almost looking panicked, and gave a relieved sigh when they looked in.  
“Is it some sort of journal?” Meta asked, to which Magolor wagged their finger  
“No no, Señor, more than that. It is THE journal. I wrote in this during my life on Halcandra”  
“Hold on,” Galacta flew back down “I recognise that thing. You wrote in it like, constantly”  
“Well, it was started because I wanted to document you” They looked to the journal, a bittersweet taste in their mouth.  
“...Document me?” Galacta felt something in her stomach drop  
“You were an alien that came crashing down randomly. Course you had to be documented!”  
Now that sentence was a sucker punch and a half. Dedede and Meta looked to each other, then they both looked to Kirby  
“Well, similar thing happened with Kirby ‘ere. Came flying down when Dreamland wasn’t in as good a place. Could say it was a miracle!” Dedede explained, remembering his less than sweet history as King. Possibly memories of a sword to the face too. Again. Less than sweet.  
“Interesting...might be common with the species. Sir Meta Knight?” Magolor turned to Meta with an inquisitive look on their face “Did you come to Dreamland a similar way?”  
“What makes you ask that?” Meta looked puzzled.  
“Well...you’re clearly the same species. Hold on, take off your mask, should be clear that way!”  
“Wh- No!” Meta stammered, looking a little embarrassed.  
“Ay, it's only for a second Meta! Let Mag prove their point!” The King reassured his knight with a pat on the back. Meta nodded reluctantly and removed his metal mask. His face looked identical to both Kirby and Galacta when unmasked, with glowing yellow eyes and cheeks tinted blue. The cheek tint was significant.  
“Exactly! Same species!” Magolor clapped with glee. Galacta recognised the excited look on Magolors face, seems they had come to a conclusion.  
“Bahaha!! Ain’t Meta a cutie?” Dedede gave a hearty laugh, making Meta flush even more.  
“Sire we are in the presence of visitors….” He murmured, putting the mask back on and trying to recollect himself.  
“See, now THIS is substantial! I’ll need to do some tests in the future, but I’ve been looking for Gala’s origin as long as I’ve known her! If we have three members of the species right here, we could actually track down an originating point! Gods, this is brilliant!!” Magolor was nothing short of overjoyed. They scurried around the different objects and artefacts that had surfaced after the button press. Galacta looked at many of them with a glow of nostalgia but was far too afraid to ask to look at any of them. She then looked to the journal. It looked ancient alright. Even the title was in ancient Halcandran, It was safe to assume the rest of it would be too.  
“Hey, what about this?” She blurted without thinking, pointing to the journal. Magolor looked up from their excited science frenzy and rushed over to pick it up.  
“Ah yes, the journal on studying you. I think you made many contributions when you were quite young too!” Magolor said with a smile.  
“Don’t tell me there are child scribbles in that book” Galacta looked quite tired.  
“Ok, I won’t” Magolor reassured as they opened the journal, which sent Galacta into a slight panic. Everyone gathered around the first page of the open journal, with only two of them actually being able to read it.  
“Hold on, I can translate! AHEM!”

_Day XX of Year XXXXX_  
_South Halcandra_

_Something amazing has happened. A crash into our planet has brought life from other worlds!_  
_A young member of an alien species was found after crashing into XXXX gardens. A bright yellow star with immense levels of energy was found with them. The alien is a bright shade of pink, with small yellow horns and pale blue wings. We have dubbed this alien “Galactic Phenomenon” and they have been brought to labs for further testing. We have contacted the mages as well, who will investigate the aforementioned star. This is a truly exciting day._  
_I will be keeping this journal to have records of this alien for future generations._

_Magolor._

“That's me?” Galacta muttered, trying to piece memories together  
“Yep! I remember that day like it was yesterday. Think that star just disappeared” Magolor looked aloof, thinking of distant memories.  
“Wouldn’t that be a power star? Kirby uses those to travel” Meta Knight asked.  
“Really? I suppose it would be. Seen Kirby’s power stars myself, they did look very similar if my memory is correct.  
Magolor turned a page in the journal, and everyone turned their attention back to the dusty looking pages

_Day XX of Year XXXXX_  
_South Halcandra_

_The Galactic Phenomenon has awoken from the damage they suffered after the crash. They have been staying with me for tests, to see if they have any conditions or illnesses that may pose a threat to our planet. So far, none have been found. The Galactic Phenomenon isn’t very talkative, though that may be an aftereffect of the crash. Hopefully, we can communicate effectively. Photos of The Galactic Phenomenon have been provided._

_Magolor._

The photos provided were of a gloomy-looking young Galacta with a small piece of paper and pen, doodling. One of the photos has her looking up and smiling slightly. She looked quite injured, judging by the bandaids and bandages that covered many parts of her.  
“Oh, gods…” Galacta gasped quietly.  
“Are you okay? I know this might be a lot, do you wanna go to bed?” Magolor looked up and asked, their ears drooping.  
“No...no I’m fine. Turn the page” Galacta sighed. She looked back at the book as the page flipped, the photos scattering to the floor

_Day XX of Year XXXXX_  
_South Halcandra_

_The Galactic Phenomenon has opened up! Luckily, communication is very easy as they speak our language very well! From observation, and their own words, the phenomenon appears to be female, or identifies as such. I will be referring to the phenomenon as ‘She’ from now on. ‘The Galactic Phenomenon’ is also quite a wordy name, so I will refer to her as ‘Galacta’ going forward. She approved of this name quite enthusiastically. Today’s general observations of her behaviour proved many suspicions of mine. One is that she is very young. This is complete speculation, but Galacta seems to be at the age of a young child. She frequently misspells words, and substitutes sounds in words she finds hard to pronounce. She doesn’t seem to know many more complicated or abstract words and takes many things literally. More observation on this will be needed._  
_Something very interesting is her combat skills. I took her on an off visit to our armoury, making weapons for the sake of seeing what we could do. She held one of the swords made there, and it almost seemed like she was familiar with that kind of weapon. Many of the movements and motions she made with the weapon were on par with pro swordsmen of our time. Again, more observation on this will be needed._  
_If things go well, Galacta will become a fine warrior. I hope all the best for her development._

_Magolor._

More photos were provided, one of Galacta with a sign that read her name in ancient Halcandran, presumably in her young handwriting. Another was of her using a powerful-looking sword against a training dummy. She had a determined look on her face, and the dummy’s head was just cut off as the photo was taken.  
Galacta sighed.  
More and more pages turned, and more and more memories came back. Copy abilities. Galactic Nova. The Landias. Star Dream. Mr Hyness. The mage sisters.  
“G-Gala??” Magolor looked up, shocked. Teardrops had fallen on the book's pages. The tears came from Galacta.  
“Im fine-”  
“NO. No. Close the book. We’re going to bed. Gala, please, you’re clearly not okay”  
“Mag, I am fine!”  
“GALA!” Magolor snapped and stood up. Galacta then stood up too, tears falling down her cheeks. “I’m worried. I can’t see you this upset after so long. So we’re going to bed. You’ll have a clearer mind in the morning” Magolor explained. They then placed a gentle hand on Galacta’s shoulder “Agreed?”  
“...Agreed” Galacta nodded and sniffed.  
“Don’t hold it, Gala. You can cry” Magolor patted Galacta’s shoulder. Magolor started walking with her back to the castle, comforting her along the way. Kirby, Dedede and Meta started following, a small ways back to give Galacta some space. They could hear her sobbing into Magolor from a ways back. The Lor gave one final message  
“TAKE CARE OF HER. TAKE CARE OF HER”  
“We will! Don't worry, Lor! We will!!" Kirby yelled back, smiling.  
The night felt long.  
But the sky stayed bright 

“Aww c’mon, its the morning! They’d be glad to have a visitor!!”  
“Flam, I don’t know. It's quite early”  
Three young women walked through the green fields of Dreamland, discussing quite loudly. The red-haired woman, Flamberge, was leading the group with enthusiasm. A blue-haired woman, Francisca, followed closely behind her. A yellow-haired woman, Zan Partizanne, was the last of their group. She looked unsure of what was happening, but she likely couldn’t stop her sisters at this point. The trio arrived at Castle Dedede, Flamberge knocking immediately.  
“KIRBY!!!” She yelled, “WE’RE HERE TO VISIIIIT!!”  
“Oh, my gods…” Zan pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose, sighing.  
“I wonder if they’re awake…” Francisca looked up, scanning the upper castle walls. The doors opened slowly, and the three jumped back slightly. Who greeted them at the door was a very tired looking Gala, wrapped in Dedede’s dressing gown, holding what looked to be a cup of coffee, eyes still red from crying.  
“Who is it?” She asked. Seems she couldn’t make out who it was, maybe she was too tired.  
“Uhm, we’re Hynesses Mages! We’re here to visit Kirby!” Francisca explained, bowing. The other two sisters followed suit in bowing. Galacta’s jaw dropped.  
“...Mr Hynesses...Mage sisters..?”  
“Yes, that's us!” Zan said, nodding.  
The coffee cup Galacta was holding dropped to the floor.  
And then Galacta dropped too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a doozy, wasn't it? A lot of things going on there. I apologise if it seemed a bit cluttered, but as I mentioned I had a LOT of ideas that I wanted to include.  
> Poor Gala, been through SO much. There's a lot more to come sadly, hope you're ready for the angst train to hit!  
> Next chapter, we look to a Gala that's a little older than previous memories, and we see just how she knew the sisters and Hyness.  
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!!


	9. Looking to the Past - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A now teenage (?) Galacta challenges the Jambandran Priestess and good friend Flamberge to a duel. Some of her skills come to fruition, and some secrets are unveiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK! Longer chapter lengths from now on! Its gonna kill me, but it'll be worth it.  
> I'm not the best with fighting or duel scenes but I did try my best.  
> Hope you enjoy it!

“MISS FLAMBERGE!! SWORDS UP HERE!!!”  
A young girl’s rash voice called from afar. The girl was looking up to an ominous-looking tree. It had no leaves, and its branches twisted and gnarled every which way. Lodged somewhere in the middle was a slightly flaming sword, easy to spot in this tree. The wood surrounding it was slightly burnt, but strangely enough, no fire had started from it. A slightly older woman with flaming red hair scurried over, looking quite relieved.  
“Oh thank gods...Gala, you’re a lifesaver, been looking for that for hours!” Flamberge thanked Galacta as she floated up to retrieve her sword. It took a bit of yanking to pull the sword from the branches.  
“Agh- Little help here, kid?” She asked, hands clasped on the swords handle. Galacta sighed and flew up, grabbing onto Flamberge’s shoulders, holding as tight as she could. Galacta started counting for them to both pull.  
“Three...two...ONE!”  
They both pulled with all their might, Galacta gritting her teeth, Flamberge yelling random Jambandran obscenities. 

SNAP!!

The sword came out and went flying, sending the two girls up in the air too.  
“WAAAAGHHH!!” Flamberge screamed. They both hit the ground hard, the flaming sword landing a few feet ahead of them, and neither of them had the energy to get up. A shadow fell over the both of them as the sword was thrown between them, clanging on the floor before resting.  
“Bonjam. I was wondering where you two were.” Zan Partizanne stood over them. “You’ve certainly grown Gala. Seem a lot more cranky than when you first arrived here”  
“Whats it to you, Miss Partizanne?” Galacta sat up and stretched her back. She huffed and turned to face Zan, nudging Flamberge to do the same.  
“Still polite though. A plus” She looked aside, moving her electric yellow hair. Flamberge fully stood up to face her sister.  
“Where’s Francisca?”  
“She’s still with Lord Hyness. I imagine they’ll both find us soon”  
Galacta heaved herself up, and dusted off, stretching.  
“Hey, this place is pretty open,” Galacta stated, a cocky smile growing on her face “How about a duel? My lance is around here somewhere!”  
“Hm. I like your confidence to ask one of us, Gala!” Flamberge teased, brandishing her newly acquired sword.  
“I need to brush up on my skills. This place needs me! Can’t be having an out of shape guardian eh?” Galacta looked around for her lance, stretching her arms and giggling.  
“I think it flew off with your little sword rescue stunt,” Zan Partizanne said, her head turning as if looking for it too. “Over there” Her finger pointed somewhere behind her, Gala’s lance being a couple hundred metres away. Flew pretty far.  
“Aw, cheers!” Gala thanked Zan with a small bow and ran over to acquire her lance, armour clinking and clanking as she ran. After she picked it up, she called over to the other two  
“HEY! CAN WE ESTABLISH SOME RULES FOR THIS DUEL? I DON’T WANNA GO OVERBOARD!” She yelled over to them. Zan and Flamberge looked to each other, inquisitive looks on their faces.  
“Yeah, a duels gotta have rules”  
“I guess I will act as a ref. You can fight, since you actually have your weapon” Zan thought out loud. They looked to each other again and nodded in time with each other.

Galacta and Flamberge stood at either end of the open area, weapons brandished, cocky smiles plastered over both of their faces. Zan Partizanne stood halfway between them, raising her hand to announce the rules  
“RULES OF THIS DUEL! WHOEVER IS KNOCKED DOWN MORE THAN THREE TIMES FIRST IS THE LOSER! WEAPONS ONLY, NO MAGICAL ABILITIES OR POWERS. FLYING IS ALLOWED. DO NOT HIT YOUR OPPONENTS FACE. IF YOU ARE KNOCKED DOWN, YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO GET UP, OTHERWISE, IT IS AN AUTOMATIC LOSS. MAY THE BEST FIGHTER PREVAIL!!”  
The two girls across the field kept sharing mocking looks, waiting for the starting sound.  
“THREE!”  
“TWO!”  
“ONE!”  
“GO FOR IT!” Zan Partizanne screamed and dived out of the field. Just as well that she did, because within milliseconds Gala soared across the battlefield to go for a direct hit. She moved so quickly it almost wiped Zan off her feet. Luckily, Flamberge raised her blade in an instant, blocking the attack and sending Gala flying up.  
“GAGH!!” Gala screamed as she was sent nearly to the heavens. She then started descending, as she managed to gain control of herself. She aimed to fall slightly behind Flamberge, and try again. Though she was planning backups as well, with so much time to fall she had all the time needed to come up with new plans. Galacta crashed into the ground behind Flam, landing on her feet sturdily. Through the dust peeked her confident smirk as she rammed in for another attack. Flamberge panicked and blocked again. Fuck, this girl is fast. Their weapons clashed, and the true duel began. The clanging of the sword and the lance rang throughout the area, Zan covering her ears as she kept close watch. Gala attempted to stab between Flamberges guard, which she dodged with a quickly though lean back. She tried to strike back, with a swipe of the sword on Gala’s lower body. Gala quickly blocked it, and started pushing against. A test of endurance began, who would collapse sooner.  
“You still standing Gala? Not bad strength for a kid!!”  
“Oh, you’re dead!”  
Gala’s face twisted into a grin as she put much more force on her guard, throwing Flamberge off. She then took a swing from the right and hit Flamberges side. She went flying across the field, crashing into a fence. One point to Galacta. 

Flamberge stumbled up, looking quite angry.  
“GAGH!!” She yelled, running over to throw Galacta off. Galacta raised her shield to block but gasped when Flamberge ran straight past her. She turned around to find Flamberges sword hitting her in the chest.  
“FUCK-” Gala screamed, knocking the sword away with her lance. DAMN, she was lucky to have her armour on. She tried to recover her breath, holding her chest in slight shock. Unluckily, Flamberge had taken another swing at Gala, knocking her with the flat side of the sword. Gala yelped and fell down, breathing heavily. One point for Flamberge. 

Gala groaned and heaved herself up, readying her shield and lance again. She had a few dents in her armour from the hits. Her teeth gritted, and Zan started panicking.  
Flam and Gala both looked very injured at this point, maybe it was a bad idea to have these two duel. Flam looked up from her resting position, and readied her sword, while Gala readied her shield for the upcoming attack. Flamberge started charging with a mighty yell, Gala raised her shield higher and gritted her teeth.  
Closer…  
Closer…

“BONJAM!!”  
An eccentric sounding voice greeted, the sound echoing across the area. The voice made Flamberge stop in her tracks, it made Gala drop her guard. Zan Partizanne immediately stood up straight, with Flamberge quickly following.  
Lord Hyness descended from some stairs at the top left part of the area, Francisca walking with him. Gala got herself up slowly, keeping her hand over her chest and hunching slightly.  
“Lord Hyness! We were wondering where you were!” Zan said, quite loudly. It made Gala attempt to cover her ears.  
“Ah, was just on a stroll my dear priestess!” His hood flopped around as he talked. Gala never _hated_ Mr Hyness, but he certainly was one to set an unpleasant mood.  
“What’s up, Mr Hyness? Sorry, Flamberge and I were just having a duel” Galacta explained, fixing her hunch.  
“A duel! A duel! Oh, it is great to see your skills sharpening! Goodness, gracious, all to the gods, our planets warrior training herself can only mean good things!” Hyness seemed ecstatic at this. “And Flamberge, it’s very kind of you to take such an offer!”  
“I can never pass up a duelling opportunity my lord!” Flamberge grinned, giggling with pride.  
“Well, gracious, I’d hate to interrupt such an important battle, but we need to go to base at once!” Hyness sounded quite urgent. You had to rely on sound since his dumb hood covered his face. Though sometimes his vigorous, cult-like arm shaking helped.  
“What for sir?” Zan asked, tilting her head.  
“Well...oh I don’t know if I can say it in front of Gala. You’ll have to come with, priestesses”  
“Hey- I AM NOT A KID!!” Gala yelled, a little more than angry.  
“It’s not your age, no worries-”  
“As if we even know what it is” Flamberge joked.  
“Just come with, Priestesses. It’s urgent, in the name of our Dark Lord” Hyness cackled slightly, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for him.  
“Yes Lord Hyness!” The three sisters followed behind him as he went back up the stairs he came from. Gala heard a small bit of the conversation as they went up.  
“...Blasted girl is surrounded by the scientists, if they find out our plans as the mages did, oh we are doomed!!”

That’s Hyness. Gala never hated him, but he sure knew how to ruin the mood.  
Gala sighed, standing still, holding her chest while hunched again.  
“Sure hope I can see them tomorrow...gods, I didn’t even get to play my guitar” Gala huffed and started walking. Her guitar lay on its case, just beneath the tree that Flamberges sword was lodged in. Holding the guitar always brought a special kind of joy to her. It was an electric guitar, bright pink, covered in stickers and graffiti, signatures too. She always loved looking at it, it had so many details all going on. She sighed as she placed the guitar back in its case. The zip-up noise was nice at least. “Heh. Zip.” Gala zipped the case back open. Then she zipped it closed again. Open. Close. Open. Close. The zips sound was nice enough to cause distraction. She hauled the now fully closed case, the carrying strap hanging off her arm. It was gonna be a pain walking home with this thing, but the zip sound was nice. 

Home sweet home. Gala crashed through her door almost drunkenly, her chest felt heavy. The door shut behind her, leaving her to remove the armour that weighed three tons half the journey, and the guitar that weighed even more, probably. She didn’t understand why everything felt so heavy all of a sudden.  
“Eh. Doesn’t matter now.” She talked to herself slightly, picking up a Halcandran language book from her bookshelf. Even if it was high up, it was easy to reach. She curled up on her bed, quite engrossed even if it was just a language book. She had learned speaking by default and reading quite quickly. She still struggled with writing though. To be fair, the characters in words could get complicated, wasn’t her fault if she forgot the odd line or spike. A soft knock came from her door.  
“Come in!” Gala called, still reading.  
Magolor slowly opened the door, looking a bit concerned.  
“...Everything ok Gala? You didn’t look so good when you came back home” They asked.  
“Yeah, yeah” Gala assured “Just had a duel with Flamberge. Went a little far but it was fun. Chest still hurts actually, her swords MEAN”  
“I’ve got medicine if you need it-”  
“I’M FINE, Mag!” She huffed, sitting up, keeping her focus on the book “I’m sure it’ll be gone by tomorrow”  
“..If you say so Gala” Magolor looked to the floor, before heading back to the front door. Gala then looked up from the book.  
“Mag, you…” She stammered slightly “You don’t look too good yourself, is everything ok?”  
“Just work. We’ve finally finished the first Galactic Nova. Partly thanks to you!” Mag smiled, their ears perking up.  
“Oh, gods I remember naming that thing. Its eyes still haunt my dreams...do they still have those eyes?”  
“Unfortunately yes”  
“Damnit” Gala laughed nervously. Her eyes turned back to the book, and she sighed.  
“Is that a language book? I don’t blame you for not understanding, our letters are NOT easy to learn. Makes writing down results a nightmare” Magolor empathised with her.  
“Oh my gods, tell me about it. What ARE half of these??” Gala laughed again, properly this time.  
Gala questioned whether to mention what Hyness said. It sounded weird, something about a Dark Lord. She decided against this, bringing up a thing like that now would probably keep Magolor awake for weeks. Now that was the last thing she wanted.  
As they discussed and laughed over the book, the night drew on.  
And on came another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was nice, wasn't it? Bit ominous, yes, but nice! Again, if that duelling scene was a bit far fetched I apologise. Was really fun writing Gala and Flamberge fight though, they seem like quite similar people, so they clash against one another quite well.  
> Next chapter, back to Castle Dedede, as the Mage Sisters and Gala meet after many many years  
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!


	10. The Morning Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mage sisters, just wanting to bid their friend Kirby a visit, get way more than what they bargained for. Meta Knight and Galacta Knight share both a cup of tea and a few thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO SORRY!! THIS TOOK LIKE A WHOLE WEEKEND!!  
> I've really not had the time to update, plus writer's block was kicking my ass sideways. All in all not very good.  
> But the update is here!! Thank you for waiting!!

Galacta lay on the floor, the spilt coffee seeping into the stone floor, staining her dressing gown. The Mage sisters stood there, shocked and concerned. The scene lay still for a few seconds, as nobody knew what to do. The girl that just answered the door passed out, how DO you react to that?   
“Hold on...she looks familiar” Zan raised her hand, and then walked over and crouched by the unconscious Galacta. Her face was plastered on the floor, so Zan lifted it up slightly. She gasped and dropped her face back onto the stone, backing off, when she realised who it was.  
“Z-Zan?!?” Flamberge looked worried, holding onto Francisca’s arm.  
“...Gala”  
“Huh?!”  
“It's Gala. Galactic Phenomenon. The girl who ruined Hyness’ plans.” Zan looked at the unconscious girl, not knowing whether to feel relief or horror.  
“GALA??! Wasn’t she sealed by some crystal or something?” Francisca gasped, holding and messing with a tuft of her hair.   
“Seems she got out” Zan theorised. “Something summoned her, she broke out by herself. Who knows..”  
“If she’s here, WHO ELSE IS?!” Flamberge started panicking, Francisca desperately trying to calm her down.  
As if like clockwork, Magolor had come down to the main hall to see what the fuss and noise were about. The scene he saw wasn’t the best.  
“Wh- Hyness’ Priestesses?! You’re alive?!”  
“MAGOLOR?!” Zan Partizanne yelled in shock.  
“What!?” Flamberge looked over Zan’s shoulder “The nerdy egg guy?!”  
“GALA?!” Magolor then rushed over to where Galacta lay unconscious  
“Egg guy’s alive?!” Francisca asked Flamberge, who shook her head in confusion.   
“Gods, this will take some explaining...Let me get Galacta to a chair or something, we’ll talk outside” Magolor looked up at the three sisters, narrowing their eyes as they held up Galacta, and started taking them to another room. Magolor then came back to the main hall and dusted themself off. The sisters had been muttering to themselves and each other, all confused and in slight horror. Magolor quickly ushered them outside and shut the castle door.

“Right. What are you doing here and why?” Magolor crossed their arms quite sternly.  
“We came to visit Kirby. We befriended relatively recently after an...incident with Lord Hyness. Just a visit to see if he was doing ok” Zan Partizanne took it upon herself to explain. The other two sisters took the role of nodding to assure her point.   
“...Incident with Hyness..?” Magolor’s eyebrow raised. Zan Partizanne sighed through her teeth and continued.   
“Yeah...uhm...Void Termina...et cetera et cetera…”  
“VOID TERMINA?! He summoned that thing AGAIN?!?” Magolor yelled in shock, horror, all sorts of relatively negative emotions.  
“BUT- But! Kirby stopped void before it could do as much damage as last time!” Zan tried to make things sound better “He helped free Hyness and us as well! So, all's well ends well!” She smiled nervously, Flam and Fran following in that quickly.   
“Hoo-okay...gods…” Magolor sighed, scratching their ear. “I guess there's no use freaking out over something in the past”  
The castle door creaked open, which made all of them turn their heads. Galacta Knight stumbled out, trying to wring coffee out of the dressing gown she still had on. She looked to the mage sisters with a mixture of emotions. A mixture just like the coffee she had. Bitter. Dark. One shot of milk.   
“Good to see you” She called as she walked over, a slightly melancholy tone in her voice. “I have...so many things to ask you. Where did you go, why didn’t you help me when I was sealed, why didn’t you stop me at ANY point…” Galacta held her head in their hands, sighing “Gala please-”   
“MAG, this is MY conversation with THEM!” She suddenly snapped, making Magolor back off. She turned back to the sisters and waited, waited for any sort of comment.   
“It was…” Zan Partizanne began, Galacta raising her eyebrow “Hyness. He was the main reason we couldn’t do much to help you. He...wasn’t exactly pleased with you stopping his plans”  
“Oh gee, I wasn’t exactly pleased with MY ENTIRE PLANET BEING WIPED FROM EXISTENCE EITHER!! But I guess we have different priorities!” Galacta huffed, she looked one word away from completely losing her temper.   
“It wasn’t ideal Galacta, trust us.” Francisca started messing with her hair “But we really had no choice. Gods, if we were given the opportunity to help you, we would’ve without a second word!”  
“Then why did some bat and a massive clock free me instead of you? Or Hyness, or Mag, or-or ANYONE who lived?!?” Galacta had started wiping her eyes. Magolor tried to comfort her, but she pushed them off quickly.   
“Again, It was Hyness’ influence. He was far gone by that point” Zan said with a sigh.  
“OOOH, is he ANY better now??” Galacta started speaking with an overly sarcastic tone, crossing her arms “Did the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP heal his soul???” She sighed heavily, almost laughing slightly. Now, THIS was the Galacta Knight they knew. Unhinged, sarcastic, looked like she could snap and attack at any point. That’s the Galacta they lost.   
Francisca stepped up, letting go of her hair.  
“Kirby was kind enough to forgive Lord Hyness. He even saved our Lord when he was taken by Void…”  
“Typical. Tch'' She scowled and started walking back to the castle, gritting her teeth. Magolor watched her go, their ears falling. They looked back to the sisters, who were all looking at each other as if asking each other what to do. Magolor then sighed. Galacta had gone back into the castle, presumably back to bed. Whether to sleep or to cry was anyone’s guess.   
“Come in, I’m sure Kirby will grant you a warmer welcome than her…” Magolor broke the silence and started walking back to the castle. The sisters followed, unsure but willing to see Kirby and the others again.

The morning sun had risen farther, at least that what Galacta could see from her window. Dreamland residents playing and chatting together. The green grasses danced with the gentle breeze. The weird tree with the face that she SWEARS is staring at her, is still staring at her. King Dedede says ‘That’s just Whispy, don’t gotta worry bout him!’. Easy to say that, your majesty. She was in the same guest room she woke up a day before in, though feeling a lot better. The dressing gown was hung up, and her armour was laid on the vanity. Apparently, Magolor was able to help with mending it, due to her armour material being from ancient Halcandra. As she made her attempts to put it all back on, she wondered about her weapons. Maybe they still needed work? She’d have to ask later.   
Her armour felt lighter somehow, she was able to move around much more in it. It was kind of a relief since heavy armour is NOT fun to wear. You get used to it, but it is NOT fun.   
The mask was the last thing she had to put on. The cardboard glitter mask Kirby made for her was laid next to it, some of the glitter had come off and covered the vanity. That and the coffee stain on her dressing gown were two things she was going to have to apologise for. Or ignore. She could definitely ignore them.   
She took another look outside the window, resting her arms on the windowsill. From the corner of a hill, she saw Kirby duelling with Francisca. Kirby had his sword copy ability, and he held the blade with great skill. Galacta laughed a little. Kirby looked like a professional, looked like someone ready to take on the world.  
“...May the galaxy be merciful Kirby. It certainly wasn’t to me” She sighed, getting up from the windowsill. Just as she did, a knock came at her door. 

“Come in” She called, and the door opened slowly. Meta Knight walked in, not getting farther than the doorframe.  
“Is everything ok?” He asked, Galacta nodding in response. “I have prepared some tea in the reception room if you would like some”  
“Oh! That...that would be lovely, thanks!” Galacta smiled. Meta walked off to the reception room, leaving the door open. Galacta had a few thoughts go through her head. That bat guy, the one who first freed her. Why? She never caught what he wished the Galactic Nova for, or why it would free her from her seal. Maybe she could ask him. Just a few things she needed to know.   
Galacta dashed out of her room, to catch up to Meta. He was walking pretty fast, so it took a bit of a sprint. She slowed down just as she came up to him, and walked just a small bit behind him. This was better since she didn’t exactly know her way around the castle.   
“Hey, can I ask something?” Galacta stammered slightly. Meta raised an eyebrow in curiosity.  
“Of course. What is it?”  
“Well...tough question, but when you summoned me through Galactic Nova, what did you wish for?” This question made Meta look up for a second, then immediately continue walking.  
“Did you not hear the wish I made?” he asked quietly.  
“I was in a massive crystal. Not much to hear” Galacta gave a small sigh. They got to the reception room, where a fire was burning, piping tea laid on a table between two fancy looking couches.  
“Well,” Meta Knight picked up his cup and sat down “I wished to fight the strongest warrior in the galaxy. I have to be honest, I didn’t think it would be another of my kind, let alone another knight. But Nova granted you that title. I guess I’ve already taken it from you” Meta laughed, but it didn’t seem like he was mocking her. More like a casual conversation laugh.   
“Strongest warrior...huh..” Galacta sat on the couch opposite Meta, looking at the ground in thought. “I guess I am. Or at least was” She said as she picked up her tea. The cup felt piping hot, she only avoided burning herself by holding the handle and saucer. It made her a little confused as to how Meta was holding his with such grace.  
“From what I've heard, you took on Void Termina. Certainly worthy of some recognition!”  
“If there was anybody to recognise…” Galacta laughed nervously, which made Meta narrow his eyes. 

“...Is everything ok Galacta?” Meta looked up from his cup, now concerned.  
“What? Yeah, yeah, all good” Galacta tried to brush off the question. Meta wasn’t convinced.  
“Galacta...I’ve never seen someone hold a cup as shaky as you.”   
She looked down to her hands, even though her vision was getting foggy. Her cup and saucer were shaking in her hands, some of the tea even spilling. Her vision got even foggier, before slamming down the tea and curling up slightly, her head in her hands, her hands to her knees.   
“Fucking...Void Termina...Dark Matter...whatever the fuck....” She sobbed, and sobbed HARD. “...killed them all...that fucking demon killed them all...Mag and the sisters and...and Hyness…”  
Meta sighed. He felt that his mention of Void Termina brought something back. Or maybe it was just hitting her that everyone she was close to is still alive. He looked around for a second, looking for something that could help. He spotted a blanket laid nearby the fire. She really liked Dedede’s dressing gown, maybe it was the soft texture that kept her calm. He quickly ran over to get it. It had a cute star pattern on it, and its texture was nice to the touch. He wrapped it over her, making her lift up from her position a bit. She took the blanket and wrapped it around herself more, curling up. She still seemed to be crying, that was clear even through her mask, but she was a lot more at peace. Meta knight took a mental note. Galacta Knight likes soft textures.   
“Thanks...this is really nice…” Galacta stifled her crying just for a second to say that, to which Meta smiled.   
“Do you need anything else? Want to go somewhere else?”  
“No no this is fine…” She smiled, and then coughed from the heavy crying before. “You know Meta...you remind me a lot of Mag…” Meta Knight raised his attention at this.  
“I’m now curious as to why you think that!”  
“Heh, see...they always knew what to do when I got this upset. Blankets...music...et cetera” She sniffed, Meta took another sip of his tea.  
“So you got upset a lot?”  
“God, yeah. Halcandra was loud, Halcandra was colourful. I’m not saying I didn’t like it, far from it. Just...very hard for a young alien to process. So I would often just shutdown” She laughed again, coughing slightly. “I still get super upset now, but it was much more common back then…” Galacta slowly picked her tea back up, holding it a little more calmly now.   
“Interesting...I can certainly understand, the universe is a loud and colourful place. Sometimes you just need quiet. Like this room” Meta Knight joked, then sipped his tea again.   
“Yeah. Definitely” Galacta looked to the ground, a little more melancholic.  
Quiet was good. It let you think, it let you plan, it gave you room to speak.

Silence was the worst though.  
Galacta Knight had always hated silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you MEAN I'm autistic coding Galacta as a form of self-projection? NOOOOOO I would NEVER do that! /s  
> The next chapters where the angst is really gonna start to kick in, We'll be going back to ancient Halcandra to show just exactly what happened when the ancients disappeared.  
> As always, kudos and comments are HIGHLY appreciated.   
> Thank you for reading!  
> (I promise the next chapter won't take as long hahaaa,,,)


	11. Bridge the Sky, Aeon Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta truly claims her title of Knight, as she fights something only so many could even comprehend. Silence comes once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE'RE IN THE GOOD PART NOW!!  
> Let's go, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Love me some drama  
> Fight scenes aren't my strong suit, so I'm sorry if the fight scene isn't too good,,,  
> LETS GO!!

“Leia…..”  
A gentle voice rang in the empty hall. A small song she wrote off the top of her head. Galacta didn’t even know where the name ‘Leia’ came from, but it sounded very pretty. Could definitely make a song about it.  
The room was empty though, so no one could hear her sing that name. She didn’t even know what this building was for, but it sure was pretty.  
Galacta sighed. What is a song without a listener?  
“Jesus, okay, too philosophical Gala, calm yourself” She started talking to herself, to fill the silence. “Who invented guitars? I’d die to kiss them for it” She joked, stepping off the elevated platform in the room. She disconnected her guitar from the amp, the clicking noise of the wire resonating with a loud echo. It sounded nice. The zip of her guitar case was just as nice too, and she started to feel the temptation to zip it back and forth like a gajillion times. She resisted this admittedly stupid temptation though, as she was on a bit of a time constraint. Galacta was training later, she needed to get back and get her armour on.  
Galacta stood up, hauling the guitar onto her shoulder. Taking one last look around the empty hall, she felt the silence creep in. It wasn’t a dreadful silence, but something about it made it feel like the atmosphere was building up to an unfortunate event.  
Just like clockwork...

BOOM!!

The entire room, hell, probably the entire planet shook violently. A harsh explosion came from the west, the sound made Galacta dive down and clutch her ears shut.  
Oh gods  
Oh gods  
When Galacta could recover from her defence position, she raised herself back up. Hearing screaming outside, she ditched her guitar and ran to see what was going on.  
She couldn’t see much, just heard cries for help, feeling dread in the air. There was only time before the next explosion. Galacta made a break for it, running back home to grab her armour and weapons. The now dark purple sky developed a black hole like image, and dread started to fill every part of Gala’s conscious. She almost broke the door open, rushing to put her armour on. Then, she realised. Magolor has her weapons.  
Magolor, already panicked and kind of angry, jumped at Galacta’s accidental attempt to break their door down.  
“MAG?!? WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON?!?” Galacta yelled, Magolor only barely able to hear her.  
“STAY OUT OF THIS!! I KNOW WHATS HAPPENED!!” They packed some important looking pink spears into a satchel and rushed to the door.  
“What do you MEAN?!?” Gala grabbed Mag’s hand, which was promptly shook off.  
“I said STAY OUT OF THIS. STAY HERE!!” Magolor yelled, running down to the source of the explosion. Several more had happened since then, smaller but just as painful to the ears. Galacta looked on almost sadly at the panicked Magolor, who had turned and ran to...Where Hyness’s base was..?  
Galacta scowled, then rushed over to where her lance and shield hung. Another explosion rang. More screams rang. Everything, ringing and ringing and ringing in her ears. One last sigh, she took with all her mental strength.  
She ran out and took flight. Destination: Hyness’s altar. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”  
“You scientific fools...You wouldn’t understand, Magolor!” Hyness giggled, marvelling at the horror before him, A formed black heart, releasing something incomprehensible.  
“HYNESS!!” Magolor grabbed Hyness by the neck of his hood, shaking “WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODS DID YOU DO?!?!”  
“The era of our Dark Lord begins now!!” Hyness seemed aloof, dazed, almost manic. “You bastard scientists tossed us aside...said we were too dangerous…” Hyness giggled again, to which Magolor seethed and dropped him. Hyness hit the ground but didn’t care to get back up. This plan had come to fruition. There was no need to get up.  
“WAIT!! LORD HYNESS” A girls yell came to be heard. The voice belonged to Zan, who had ran from behind the altar. “Sir, the ritual was faulty!! We’ve botched it!!”  
This made Hyness simply raise his head.  
“Are you sure, Priestess?” He said quietly, to which Zan nodded nervously. The black hole grew bigger, the explosions started to hit the volcano. Time was running out.  
A figure flew down, almost as if from the heavens. Hyness and Zan watched them float down in shock, while Magolor watched in pure horror.  
Galacta’s feet touched the floor. Her lance was held by an iron grip, the look in her eyes was of pure determination.  
“Gala?! GALA I TOLD YOU TO STAY AT HOME!!” Magolor screamed through a shaky voice.  
“What is it Magolor. I can sort it” Gala said quietly, looking up nervously to the ever-increasing tear in reality.  
“GALA, NO! YOU ARE NOT FIGHTING WHATEVER THING THIS- THIS CULT MANIAC SUMMONED!!” Magolor looked as if they were about to cry. The other two sisters came from the altar, to stand their ground.  
“Cult maniac?!” Zan scowled at Magolor “Hyness is a HERO to us!”  
“HERO?!? THAT THING HE BROUGHT FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME IS GOING TO GET US KILLED!!”  
“SHUT IT!” Galacta yelled, with a bit of newfound gruffness in her voice. Everyone turned their attention to her. “I’m going in there. Don’t you FUCKING dare try to stop me” She lay down her plans. Magolor looked like they were desperate to contest them.  
“Oh, Aeon Hero...I bid you a safe flight…” Hyness sat up, deranged and giggly. “Bridge the sky Aeon Hero. Let’s see if our Dark Lord will remember your name…”  
Galacta had enough of this. She took flight once again, shooting towards the sky at near Mach speeds. Magolor reached out to the sky, clutching their mouth in shock.  
“I’m sorry Mag.” She thought to herself, soaring higher and higher into the sky. The last thing she wanted was to leave Magolor to die. But...such is life.

Galacta tumbled from the wormhole into a grand looking pocket of space. She could see galaxies upon galaxies through the lens of this little bubble. The crystalline floor she landed was nearly see-through, almost didn’t seem real. That sense of dread she was feeling throughout the entire ordeal was now replaced with...familiarity..? Her sight reached the very end of the vast area, where something was forming out of a cloud of smoke. Something...unnatural. Something...horrifying.  
Galacta could do nothing but watch as the being formed itself. Arms. Legs. Torso. Head. And a white mask with hollow eyes. The being formed was a hulking beast, covered in ancient markings. Was...was THIS what Hyness summoned?  
She could see why Magolor was so worried now. Oh, gods, she could see why now.  
Galacta raised herself, her muscles and joints already aching somehow. The air felt so heavy, the galaxies looked upon her in horror. She is the Galactic Knight. She started to feel something drip down her cheeks, her vision started to blur. Dread and familiarity ran through her bones as an eye grew on the beasts chest.  
Galacta immediately took to the air, her mind set on one goal: Kill this foul beast. The beast in question roared, the eye spazzing out. Galacta flew around the space, circling the beast as it walked. Each step shook the ground and skies, making Galacta stray from her flight path. Gala gritted her teeth, looking for a possible weak spot. The eye was too risky at first thought, who’s to say that’s not the thing’s actual eye? Nowhere else looked particularly vulnerable though. Galacta decided to take a stab at the beast’s arm, it looked exposed enough. Diving down onto the left on, her lance pointed, her heart pounding, she broke into a sweat. The beasts mask turned to look at her. Oh shit  
The beast swiped at the attacking Galacta, sending her flying across the sky.  
“GGAAAAAAAGH!!” She screamed, then smacked onto the glossy floors, which felt like concrete. Her arms could only just pull herself up, pain shooting through her veins and nerves like fireworks.  
“Fuck…” She muttered, watching the beast continue its grand stride. Rage then filled her body, and she shot up to the skies once again. Her wings felt crumpled, and pain jolted through her body with every flap. The tears falling from her cheeks kept pouring, but the last thing she was doing was giving up.

It was time to aim for that eye. Gala’s flight path took her directly in front of the hulking monster, who’s mask looked far from properly on. The spasming eye on its chest glowed like a ruby, looking angrily at its attacker. Galacta dove for the eye, slashing her lance across it diagonally. The eye spasmed, the beast screamed. It stumbled over, the ground shaking violently. Galacta had a small fear that the crystal floor may crack under its weight, and give way. As Gala was just relieving over finding a weak spot, the eye appeared next on the monster’s shoulder. She whined, almost hopelessly, but didn’t give in, taking to the air and divebombing the eye. Another scream, another stumble. Seems some of its energy is knocked every time the everchanging eye is hit. Galacta now had a plan, and by gods, she was going to put it to action.  
Eye after eye after eye, scream after scream after scream. Noises and pain, circling and ringing in her head. The headache she was developing while combatting this monster was nearly head-splitting. It had thrown so many attacks at her, elements and weapons chipped at both her health and her mental stability.  
Finally, the eye had appeared on the forehead of its mask, the eye itself again spasming. Galacta found herself weirdly relating to its panicked state, With one swipe, the mask fell. The terminal beast collapsed onto then ground, with the floor responding violently. The mask fell, revealing a disgusting looking vortex. The air around Galacta started sucking her in, throwing her into the belly of the beast.

The soul of this monster sat untouched. Among organs and fibres that carried the beast in its stride, the soul of the void sat with a blank stare. Galacta catapulted into the heart of this monster, hitting the ground with a painful thud. Staggering up, she looked upon this soul that the beast carried. Its blank face stared back, and a jolt of terror ran through Galacta’s head.  
Shit. Shit. Shit.  
The dread that had left before was now back in full force, Galacta could barely stand up in the presence of this Void. The ball of boundless negative energy started to move, its face contorting in all sorts of ways. Anger, pain, joy, sadism. Galacta made her attempts to dodge its rapid moves. Spikes, slams, Gala felt her entire body breaking down. This thing was beyond time or space, beyond reason. Beyond words  
Gala made her attempts to fight back. She was definitely hitting, her lances stabs making the soul react violently, but nothing felt concrete. Everything felt...so hopeless.  
Then something hit her head. Something heavy. A satchel flew onto her head, knocking her to the floor. Thankfully she didn’t go unconscious. Gala sat up, wheezing and huffing, and rummaged into the satchel. Pink spears with hearts on the end, spears that she felt very connected with. They flew up and around her, the heart spears seeming to be weapons against this boundless void. That void...now looked scared?? She wasn’t going to relent though. With all her willpower, she guided the heart spears to penetrate the soul before her. She gritted her teeth, each heart spear made the void cry out in pain. This wasn’t the deep groan of the monster before. Instead, it made the cries of a child in pain. Galacta took hold of the last spear and made a leap of faith. The spear sank into the voids body, a pink glow then radiating from its core. The scream it made was horrifying.  
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” A childs scream rang in Galacta’s head. A scream of pain. A scream of anger.  
“CURSE YOU!!! YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE PLANET!!” The child’s voice howled, Galacta tumbled to her knees. She felt a piercing pain herself, clutching her chest in shock.  
In no more than three moments, she was back at the crystal heart. Her hands gripped on one of the heart spears that were now shoved deeply into the heart. 

Silence came once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOO, that was a doozy!  
> The drama, the tension!!  
> Can you tell I enjoyed writing this chapter?  
> Next chapter, we see a Halcandra that is...a little different.


	12. Death to the Aeon Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta wakes up after her battle with void, only to be met with results she would've died to not get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO  
> I had a...worrying amount of fun writing this sad sad chapter. I sure hope you enjoy the absolute despair you're about to feel!  
> Hannah, please don't kill me, this had to be done >_<  
> Hope you enjoy it! If you don't that's probably my fault.

The air had grown cold. Maybe her lungs had frozen from stress. There was a dead silence that hung in the air like a colony of bats. Watching. With their little red eyes.   
Galacta released her grip from the heart spear, collapsing to the ground. She couldn’t get up for a solid five minutes, every part of her body screamed in pain. In her struggle, a small orange butterfly landed on her nose.   
She slowly sat up, whining from the pain she was in. That fight was horrible, she didn’t know how long it could take to recover. Hopefully, Magolor had something that could ease the pain.   
The girl stumbled to her feet, breathing heavily, feeling her stomach churn. Her lance dropped to the floor from her weakened fingers, pretty much every part of her felt weak and limp. All that her ears were met with was silence. The butterfly flew off her nose and started circling the area, something about it glowed, orange light cascading onto and reflecting off of Galacta’s mask.   
It was quiet. Too quiet.   
That quietness started to eat at her worries. Those worries said only one thing.

_Where the fuck is everyone?_

Galacta started walking. A small walk, her steps were tiny. Her steps were heavy as if carrying all the weight of her armour and body. The armour itself was scratched to hell, dented and wrecked. Somehow, that only made the weight of it even worse. The butterfly landed gently onto her shoulder, seemingly a lot more conscious than it should be. Do butterflies have will? Is this one the ‘Mate and die’ type or, was it looking for something? 

“What’s your deal, little guy?” Galacta asked the butterfly absentmindedly. She knew the thing wasn’t gonna answer, their little mouths probably don’t have vocal cords. It was just to fill the silence.   
“You around here often? I haven’t seen such glowy butterflies on this planet” She wasn’t the best at one-sided conversation, but she made her attempts. She hedged her bets on when she found Magolor, that they’d freak out and chase it away or something, probably because of some outrageous reason. Like the things the grim reaper or something.   
“Ridiculous…” Galacta smirked, muttering. Her breath felt a bit lighter, her steps starting to make more distance.   
Then she thought about the satchel that had smacked her in the head, filled with those heart spears that saved her ass in that fight. It looked like Magolors actually, the one they had when they first ran out. Maybe they had tossed it into that wormhole to help her. That was a nice thought.  
The butterfly flapped its wings but stayed planted on Gala’s shoulder. She swore she nearly heard a giggle.   
Maybe the wind. Yeah. Just the wind.  
Man, she was losing it, the silence really seemed to be getting to her. Talking to a butterfly, hearing things that weren’t there. Gods. She needed to sleep or something.  
Everything would be ok though, at least. She protected the planet, she defeated the beast. She truly became the planets hero. She would go home, get her armour off, taste Magolor’s cooking and sleep peacefully. Thank gods.

Her steps finally looked normal. After a good few minutes of walking equivalent to a tortoise, she was finally making distance. She walked backed through the now destroyed town, worries starting to build up again. Would we be able to fix all this?   
“Oh, gods. That’s gonna take a while..” She looked at the destroyed landscape. All the explosions and wormhole stuff wasn’t exactly going to leave the planet in a desirable state, but it was definitely….fixable. Definitely.   
A worry then ate at her once more. The silence continued, which made her stomach turn again. One thought crossed her head.

_Where the fuck IS everyone?!_

She had to face it. No one was here. No one could be heard, or seen. Not a random civilian, scientist, magician, whatever. There was no one. Her and the butterfly still lurking on her shoulder seemed to be the only living beings in sight.   
Well, maybe they’re all hidden or something? I mean, a big emergency like that would cause evacuations!! Yeah, they’ve evacuated to somewhere safe!  
Galacta heard the giggle again. She whipped herself around, trying to find its origin. No luck.   
Then, a thought crossed her mind, a thought she dreaded to entertain. 

_“CURSE YOU!! YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE PLANET!!!”_

That’s what void said, right? The sound of its voice violently stabbed Gala’s chest, she felt a sharp pain in her gut. A pain in her gut that she feared was right.   
Galacta’s pace picked up. Her steps now became much larger, much quicker. Whether it was from recovering her energy or from panic was anybody’s guess. She started checking in the wrecked houses she walked past. Someone must still be in these, not everyone can evacuate! Each house provided no result, just rubble and glass. And silence. Dreaded silence.   
Her walk became a run, a panicked run. Her lungs felt heavy, her gut screaming. She felt nothing but dread, worry and hopelessness. It even got to a point where she expected no one, but looked around the house anyway, clinging onto whatever hope she could find, false or otherwise. Tears started pouring down her face once again, as she rummaged through whatever could hold a being, just for some other sign of life.  
All turned up null. 

A thought crossed her mind. Magolor. Oh gods, Magolor.   
Her mad scramble through each place turned into a dash to Magolor’s house. Magolor literally just saved her life with those heart spears, she HAD to see him. The butterfly flew off her shoulder and started flying ahead. This didn’t give her ANY feeling of relief. Her pace quickened even more, even though it felt like the weight of the world was on her weak and heavy chest. Her lungs and throat felt freezing cold, each breath feeling like a brutal stab.   
“Shit, shit, shit..!!” She muttered as she ran, hacking and spluttering. Magolor HAD to be there. They couldn’t be gone too. Gods, no. Gods, no

Gala rammed down the door, her entire body shaking. She couldn’t stop the tears pouring down her face. The butterfly flew in, taking its time to circle the room as if it didn’t care for the circumstances right now. It sat on Magolor’s workbench, covered in blueprints and stains from drinks. Gala hated Magolor’s hot drinks, how the bitter smell would fill up the entire room. But she’d give anything to smell it again right now. Gods, she would feel so much better if she could smell it. Gala shook off these hopeless feelings and started rummaging around the house, Magolor could be refuging anywhere, so she had to be thorough. That was the thought process she was going with at least. Something deep inside told her something she didn’t want to entertain, something she was blocking out.

_They’re dead_

The thought coursed through her brain, almost like a violent electric shock. Her eyes welled up as she kept looking, re-searching places she had already looked in. Desperate attempts for hope. 

_They’re dead and it's your fault_

Galacta heaved a sigh, collapsing onto the empty, rubble covered floor. She took off her mask in an attempt to breathe better, her tears falling onto the floor underneath her.

_You didn’t kill that monster in time_

Pitiful sobs started echoing across the empty room.

_The sisters are dead_   
_Hyness is dead_   
_The entire planet is dead_

She couldn’t stop the wave of despair from overflowing her every thought.

_Magolor is dead_   
_ITS YOUR FAULT_

There was nothing that could be done now. She started crying, crying hard. Wailing like a child, on the floor of the destroyed room Magolor once called home.   
“Please...gods...this can’t be real…” She spluttered, her face and eyes red from sobbing. Her throat grew hoarse as every horrible thought ran through her head. “Magolor...gods I’m so sorry…” Gala now had raised herself, curling into a foetal position, with her head deep in her hands. The sobbing never stopped. She had failed. She had failed everyone. That thought kept destroying her mind, not allowing her even a few seconds of recovery. Oh, gods, she had failed.   
The planet she didn’t even belong to.  
The planet that welcomed her with open arms.  
The planet that trained her to be powerful.  
She had failed it. 

Galacta lay for a few more minutes, not even crying. Just wallowing in hopelessness. There was nothing she could do. They were all dead and there was nothing she could do.   
Sadness went to hopelessness.  
The butterfly left its place on the desk, and landed on Galacta’s nose, making her perk up.  
Her hopelessness then became anger. 

She raised herself to her feet, her fist clenched and teeth gritting together. She felt strength, newfound strength born from this anger.  
This strength felt...good.  
Galacta shook off the butterfly and raised her hand. Without further question, the lance she dropped flew to her open hand. The rebound it made across her body didn’t affect her at all, instead, she felt more malice grow within her. Her breathing quickened, she felt a rush of adrenaline within her. She felt...powerful.

The next few moments were nothing but a blur  
When the adrenaline took over, she had no idea what she did. But what she did felt cathartic, felt brilliant.  
Galacta came to, her senses returning to her, the feeling of hopelessness returning too. What her eyes were met with was far from anything she expected.  
She had taken to the air, and the lands she was looking upon was cracked, broken and ridden with lava from the volcano that had awakened from its millennia of being dormant. It was already destroyed before, but now it was beyond repair. Beyond anything, in fact, she barely recognised it as Halcandra.   
Did….did she do this?  
Did she do this?!?  
Her mind felt warped, betrayed, gods, any words like that. 

The orange butterfly found its way to her, landing back on her nose. Its little glow shining through the eyes of her mask that had found its way back onto her face.   
Galacta needed to get out of here.  
Galacta needed to go anywhere else.  
She shook herself off, the butterfly coming off along with her thoughts. Her head was rampant with both guilty reprimands against herself and incoherent gibberish. Galacta then turned, to look at the skies that awaited her. The galaxies that pended her arrival. They painted the sky in beautiful colours, little lights shining down on her, saying all sorts of things.  
The galaxy was awaiting her arrival. It didn’t have to wait much longer.  
Her wings took movement, her eyes gained confidence. She was still in so much pain. But at least the gods have given her a way to channel it.

As she soared into space, leaving a trail of light behind her, the butterfly took her place. It floated there for a second, gazing at the destruction she just made.   
_“Interesting. This Galactic destroyer is most certainly interesting”_ an unearthly set of voices spoke in unison.

And so the butterfly took flight too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please trust me on this it gets better please it gets so much better   
> I'm sorry for putting all of you through that (I'm sorry to galacta too hope she's ok)  
> Next chapter, we return to Castle Dedede, where Meta comforts a distressed Galacta, and then some little bits of gossip is shared!  
> As always, kudos and comments are highly appreciated. Thank you and stay tuned for the next chapter!


	13. The Tea did Taste Good, At Least.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta shares conversation and tea with many other residents of Dreamland, after a not so pleasant recollection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YESS!! I love writing comfy chapters!   
> Here's the metadede I promised, ya nerds.   
> Hopefully, this makes up for the emotional turmoil I put all of y'all through last chapter  
> Thanks for reading!!

The crackling of the fire saved the room from silence. Wood burning beneath an orange glow, creating shadows on the opposite wall. Two figures sat opposite each other, one looked quite concerned, the other seemed to be crying.

“And...and that was that” Galacta sat up, trying to choke back any more sobs. “That’s when I became that so-called greatest warrior. Fuckin stupid story, honestly” She gave a small laugh, trying to lighten up the mood. It didn’t work on Meta, who took one last long sip of tea. He sat it down gently on the table and looked the teared up Galacta in the eye.   
“I’m sorry.” He said, which made Galacta confused.   
“Wh..what?”  
“I’m sorry about that”  
“..Sir you...you don’t need to apologise. Was my own fault anyway..” She looked to the side, unnerved by Meta’s solid gaze.   
“No. No, it wasn’t,” He looked to the ceiling, thinking of what to say “What you did was your best in a hopeless situation. Things didn’t turn out well, because void is a fickle beast.”  
“Meta...please, I’m fine” She wiped her eyes, sighing. “There is no need to comfort me”  
“You’ve got a blanket around you, I’ve just heard out your story. I’d say that’s comfort” He smiled slightly, getting up from his seat.  
“Waitwaitwait, where are you going?” Galacta asked. Oddly enough, she seemed a little panicked.  
“Hm? I’m just getting some more tea. Why, would you like some too?”  
“Oh! Sure, sure!” She waved her hands a bit and then leaned back in her seat, a little more relaxed. Her tears were still common, but she wiped them up quickly.  
“Alright. Be back in...about ten?” Meta started walking to the door, his armour clinking with every step, which was unfortunately common with knights. Just as Meta turned the doorknob, the door swung open. Meta Knight stumbled and was left to eat dust, as King Dedede stood grandly in the doorway. 

“Was wonderin’ where ya went off to, Mety!” He stood proud as Meta hauled himself back up.  
“You...gh...shouldn’t have worried, sire, I was just discussing things with Galacta Knight” Meta explained, to which Dedede then look a closer look into the room  
“Oh, pinkie? Should’ve told me! How are ya, oh pink knight of aeons ago?” He took a cartoonish bow as he walked in. Meta broke a small sweat.  
“Sire, the conversation we had wasn’t exactly pleasant, I don’t know if she’s ok for jo-” Meta was interrupted by Galacta’s laughing. It was a small laugh, but good to hear. After the breakdowns she’s had, it was good to see her happy.   
“Sense of humour I see!” A wide grin grew on the king’s face, to which his knight sighed.  
“You’ve opened a can of worms here, Galacta”  
“Nah Nah, you just saw her laugh, you just said she hasn’t been too good, it’s our opportunity to change that!” Dedede faced Meta and grinned. Meta smiled, but he wasn’t about to show it. “OH OH!! OUR DAD JOKES!! METY, WE HAVE SOMEONE NEW TO USE EM ON!!” Dedede clapped excitedly. Galacta almost started cackling, a bit taken aback but nonetheless pleased at the two’s unconventional dynamic.   
“You probably don’t need dad jokes, you yourself are entertaining enough” Meta found it hard to hide his smile now.   
“Awww, see pinkie, he’s ever the flatterer!” Dedede joked, which made Meta’s face blush slightly. You couldn’t see it through the mask, but Galacta knew the exact face he was pulling. Mask wearer solidarity.   
“W-well, I have some tea to make. Are you staying too, my king? Should I make a cup for you as well?” The knight tried to recover himself by asking.  
“May as well! Could tell so many stories to pinkie here. Plus,” He knelt down a bit so only Meta could hear “She looks like she’d pop a lung if she was left alone too long, someone should keep her in check”   
“How noble of you sire” Meta joked with a mocking grin on his face.  
“Agh! You were here too!!” The king yelled, making another cartoony expression, one resembling a huff.   
“Same tea as usual?” Meta then asked, still chuckling.   
“Of course, of course..” Dedede waved his hand as he walked over to sit opposite Galacta, who seemed a little aloof. The door closed behind a warmly smiling Meta, and the fire crackling returned once more. 

“So how are ya pinkie?” Dedede asked, looking quite relaxed.  
“Better than I was, honestly. Your knight’s a good listener”   
Dedede laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Is he?”  
“Good at making tea too” She added, gesturing to her empty cup.  
“Well, I taught him, so he’s bound to be good!” he gave a hearty laugh.  
“Actually yeah, that honey tea you made the other day was amazing!” She sat up and clasped her hands together in excitement, to which Dedede sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of his head.  
“Well, I do try!”   
The king puffed his chest in pride. Galacta hadn’t properly talked to Dreamlands leader like this, not directly anyway. It gave her a good chance to see what he was like. He wore a grand looking red kimono with a pattered sash and a hat that she couldn’t exactly discern the design of. It did have a white pompom on the top though, which struck Galacta as important somehow. Little murals around the castle and books she had glanced at told her that this grand king wasn’t always so kind. Well, he had certainly changed if that was the case. He certainly had an attitude about him, you couldn’t deny that. But it was a lot more comforting than obnoxious, somehow. 

“Uhm, can I just ask?” Galacta had stretched her shoulder and relaxed, Galacta’s question made Dedede perk up.  
“Hm? Go ahead!”  
“How did you and Meta Knight meet? You two are quite different, I’m interested to hear about how you two get along somehow” She tucked her legs back up, rocking back and forth slightly. Then, she raised and started shaking her hands nervously “I-If you don’t mind me asking that is!!”  
That’s right, Meta and Dedede were very different. They say opposites attract, but like, it would still be interesting to see how they found common ground. Meta was...yeah he was different. If he wasn’t in his (pretty heavy looking) armour, he would be wearing a blue kimono or something similar. Anything cape-like thing that he could find would usually be wrapped around him, which let him walk around mysteriously. When they were walking together to this room before, Galacta noted that he looked as if he was floating as he walked. Whether it was his usual walk or if he was showing off was anybody’s guess. Meta definitely tried to look stoic and sensible, but from Galacta’s own experiences she knew that was wrong. Seriously, who the hell has a battleship with their own face on the front. Or summons a wish-granting god just to throw hands?!  
“Nah, it’s fine! Love telling people about Mety actually!”   
Mety, huh? That was some nickname. Dedede didn’t look like the affectionate type, but people can be surprising. 

“Well, we both had lived on Dreamland for as long as either of us remembers. Though things did start sour. I was eatin’ anythin’ I came across, he kept plottin’ to take over the kingdom, or something else batshit. You’ve seen him, got a screw loose when it comes to ‘hey, is this thing a good idea’. He sees an idea and takes it, good or bad” Dedede huffed. Galacta giggled slightly at that remark, knowing exactly what he meant.  
“Anyway, Dreamland was all up in arms about that, but then Kirby came crashin’ in outta complete dead space. Seriously, it was kind of scary seein’ this THING just come hurtling like two blocks from your front yard. Kirby himself, kid had a few things to work on as well. Long story short, he stopped me from stealing all the food, and shit just happened from there!”  
‘Shit just happened from there?” What in the name of the gods does that mean.   
“There was uhhhh….” Dedede raised his hands, about to start counting on his fingers. “The nightmare thing, Meta knight trying to take over, the Marx thing, the three times Dark Matter tried to fuck everythin’ up, the Squeak squad one, the Mirror one, at least THREE art-related ones, the Magolor one, the Dreamstalk one, the Haltmann one, the Void one- there’s just SO much that happened here!” Dedede finished listing an impressive amount of unfortunate events on his (non-existent) fingers, then leant back in his seat, looking a little tired. Man...a lot happened here.  
“I’m assuming that everyone here grew a lot closer with each one?” Galacta commented, still rocking back and forth.   
“Yeah, it kinda started with the Magolor one. Your old one crashed into out planet after attackin’ Landia, convinced us to get his ship parts and this crown back for him. Me, Kirby, Bandana dee and Mety all helped out. Boy were we fools…”  
There was a lot to digest in that sentence. Old one? Dedede and Meta helping out? Landia??

“After that ordeal, we all grew a lot closer” Dedede interrupted Galacta’s derailing train of thought, making her sit up and try to listen again. “Think the next big thing was that buddy fighters tower. Me and Mety challenged Kirby to climb this fighters tower. Still can’t believe we forgot Kirby can’t read…”  
“Did...did you write him a letter?” Galacta started circling on the spot instead of rocking.   
“Yuuuup. Baaaad idea. But it was a fun time nonetheless, fighting Kirby honestly without like, being possessed or shit like that. The kids good at fightin’, so it’s always fun to battle”  
“Interesting..” Galacta looked to the table, making involuntary notes on the details in the sides.   
“Think the best thing that came out of that though, was that Mety actually confessed his feelings. Poor guy was stammering over every word, it was just...so cute” Dedede laughed a little, to which Galacta gave a warm smile.   
“Glad to see you two so happy together. Refreshing.”   
“Is it? You’re too kind, Pinkie! Honestly, really meeting Mety was the best thing that could’ve happened to me! He’s just so powerful, and- and really kind, and oh god, he can be adorable sometimes too!” Dedede went into a gushy rant about his partner, who had just happened to walk in the room as he was talking. Halfway through this affectionate rant, The king noticed Galacta’s incessant pointing to his left. He turned around to see a completely flushed Meta Knight, holding a few cups of very shaky tea.  
“Sire...Galacta...t-tea’s ready…” he stumbled on his words, you could just FEEL how burning his face was just by looking at it. Dedede got up from his chair, laughing.  
“Heya, Mety! Which ones mine?” The king asked as he walked over. Meta handed over a shaky cup, which Dedede took quickly. Meta then placed Galacta’s tea in front of her and sat back down next to the king, who was taking a hearty sip.   
“...You okay, Meta Knight?” Galacta asked, looking comically concerned at Meta, who was still a little embarrassed.  
“Yes, Yes, all is fine…” He sighed, sipping his tea. He jolted a little when Dedede then wrapped his arm around him, but he quickly melted into Dedede’s embrace.  
“Just not too used to affection, heh” Dedede chuckled. These two were really endearing to watch, in all honesty. From what the king had said, these two didn’t exactly start off on the best foot, but seeing them like this now was almost a feel-good story. 

A knock then came at the door. Before any of them could turn around, Kirby came running in, with Magolor following behind a lot slower.  
“Hey, egg! Good to see ya!” Dedede turned, with Kirby jumping up on the couch next to him.   
“Hi, your majesty!” Magolor responded, clasping their hands together.  
“Hey, dad!”

The room went silent.   
All eyes were on Galacta. 

“....Why are you all staring at me?” She shifted herself, her rocking back and forth stopped automatically.   
“You just called Magolor dad,” Meta Knight said quite bluntly, making Galacta recoil slightly.  
“W-what? No I didn’t!”  
“Yeah, you did!” Kirby said. His babbling was completely understandable, like they spoke the same language. “You said ‘hey dad!’”  
“I said ‘hey Mag!’, Don’t know how you guys misheard…”  
“Do you see me as a parent figure, Gala?” Magolor sensed the atmosphere, their expression growing smug.   
“N-No!! Shut it!” Galacta grew embarrassed, tucking her blanket back over her.   
“C’moooon Pinkie, no shame in it!” Dedede now joined in, the same smug expression on his face too. Galacta only grew more and more pissed off and embarrassed.  
“Magolor DID raise you, it’s not too far of an assumption” Meta sipped his tea again, chuckling slightly.   
“I told you, I did NOT call them dad. That’s the LAST thing I would call Mag, actually!” She tucked the blanket over her even more, so only her mouth was visible through it, just so she could breathe.   
“Sure, sure, I believe you!” Magolor then said, making Galacta tuck her head out the blanket slightly.  
“THANK YOU!” Galacta cheered slightly, only to be mortified when Magolor started patting her head.  
“Daughter” Magolor said with a smug smile, making Galacta grumble.   
“Hey, guys” A smugger smile then grew on HER face, which was not good news for anybody. “Did you know Magolor purrs like a cat when you pet them?”  
“Wait no-” Magolor panicked, Dedede yelling “REALLY?!?!” immediately after. 

Bandana Dee slowly opened the door, only to be greeted with the usual absolute mayhem of life in Dreamland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N'awwww, that was nice! Good to see Galacta really being welcomed by everyone, eh?  
> Take a guess as to where I got that 'I didn't call them dad!' scene from lmaoooo  
> Next chapter, hopefully a good talk between Gala and the mage sisters is in order, huh? Lets see if that can be done!  
> I should probably plug some socials as well, incase anyone wants to tag me in art or ask questions! I go by @incelghetsis on both Instagram and twitter, so hit those up if you have anything to say!  
> As always, comments and Kudos are appreciated!!   
> Thank you for reading!


	14. Bunch of Weirdos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Galacta and the mage sisters reconcile through getting lost, somehow. Magolor and Galacta share some thoughts on a new figure appearing more and more, a figure that can only follow death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FOUR THOUSAND WORDS BAYBEE LETS GOOOOOO  
> Okay, so, I kind of went overboard. I had a LOT of fun with this chapter when I was expecting absolutely not to. Also, I'm REALLY happy to fully introduce morpho into this. They won't be appearing TOO much, but a certain future chapter will definitely clear things up for them lmao.  
> I can't guarantee every chapter after this is going to be this GARGANTUAN but y'know, we'll see what we can do!  
> Hope you enjoy!

Galacta ended up far away from the madness of the castle. Maybe leaving Magolor there was a bit mean, but they could manage.  
The wind in the leaves above her rustled gently, filling the air with the sounds of nature. It sounded...nice. Nice, like a sort of ‘nature windchime’ or something.  
She sighed. The sound matched the pitch of the wind for a second, which caught her a little off guard. This place was beautiful, this planet was beautiful. But it felt eerily alive. Too alive. That tree that the king told her not to worry about was probably somewhere around here. Its hollow eyes still creeped her out, even in thought. Not unlike the Galactic Nova’s eyes. Maybe she just didn’t like creepy unblinking always-staring-at-you-constantly eyes. Maybe.  
A small orange butterfly flew down, and sat beside her in the grass. It clung to one blade of grass, which shook in the next gust of wind. In a panic, the butterfly landed on Galacta’s shoulder. It took her a moment to notice, she simply had her mind focused on the nice sound of the rustling leaves. Nice. It all just felt so nice. Galacta really liked this feeling, of pure tranquillity. When things were just...nice. 

“KIRRRRBYYYY!!!!” A screeching voice shattered the tranquil silence, causing Galacta to clamp her hands over her ears and curl up. Too loud. WAY too loud.  
“Flam, you don’t have to shout!” Galacta barely heard the other voice, which made her realise who it was. The Mage sisters.  
“How’s Kirby supposed to hear us?? KIIRRRBYYYY!!” Flamberge yelled again, making Galacta tense up even further.  
“Flam!! I just saw someone, keep it down!!” Francisca huffed, a little paranoid  
“Eh?”  
Francisca pointed in the distressed Galacta’s direction. The three sisters all looked quite confused.  
“Is that...Gala?” Zan stepped forward, narrowing her eyes. Her eyes then widened significantly, and she stepped back.  
“What?? Is she okay??”  
“I think we’ve scared Galacta. She’s having one of those ‘overloads’ Magolor would go on about…” Zan sighed. Flamberge gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.  
“Oh gooooodsss...I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it!!” Flamberge started panicking as quiet as she could.  
“Its okay, Flam calm down! We can sort it!” Francisca reassured her, turning to Zan who was deep in thought. By this point, Galacta had started singing gently, her hands still tightly holding onto her ears, her body rocking to and fro slightly. The orange butterfly had taken rest on her head, enjoying the ancient Halcandran song.  
Zan slowly walked up to Galacta, and sat a few feet away in the grass, facing her. Galacta’s head twitched a bit as she looked up to see who just sat with her. She was shaking a bit, her hands red from tension.  
“Everything ok..?” Zan asked a bit nervously. Their last discussion hadn’t gone too well, but she didn’t exactly want to leave Galacta here like this.

The other two sisters slowly approached together, sitting beside Zan. Galacta seemed to be focused on the ground, not willing to make eye contact. She shuffled her feet around, trying to hear the rustle. The grass rustle was nice. She took a sharp breath, looking up, releasing the tension on her hands slightly. The sisters’ faces lit up slightly, almost forgetting the hostility Galacta had previously shown them.  
“I can move…” Galacta muttered. “I can move…” She slowly took her hands from her ears, incredibly cautiously. They would twitch back up on occasion. There was an undeniable tension in the air. Flamberge looked to Francisca nervously, and mouthed ‘IS SHE OKAY?”. Francisca mouthed “I THINK SO. GIVE HER A SECOND” back, then turning to Galacta. She asked “Are you okay?” gently.  
“Y...yeah… I’ll be okay… “ She responded, her voice quieter than a whisper. She repeated the word ‘okay’ a few times, turning her head upwards. A few moments passed. Galacta’s head was clearing. Her thoughts were comprehensible again, thank gods. Her legs released themselves from her chest, and her entire body slowly but surely relaxed.  
“God….my head hurts…” She said slowly, her voice still very quiet.  
“Galacta Knight...good to see you!” Francisca broke the silence as carefully as she could, her voice stayed quiet but enthusiastic. Galacta knight smiled slowly, the butterfly from before landing on her nose. Flamberge’s face then rose in horror. She stumbled up and started running.

“We- We forgot about Kirby!! Where’s Kirby!!”  
“Wait! Flam- Ugh!” Zan huffed, losing sight of Flamberge quickly.  
“What...what happened? She looked kinda panicked” Galacta slowly pulled herself up, stretching her back and shivering. She still looked really tense, but it was better than before.  
“We uhm…” Francisca went quiet, twirling her hair nervously. She looked to Zan Partizanne, who looked pretty tired.  
“We were playing some ball games with Kirby, the ball got lost, then Kirby got lost, now we’re...we’re here.” She explained, looking distantly at where Flamberge ran off to. You could distantly hear the sounds of Flamberge yelling for Kirby. At least they wouldn’t lose her.  
Francisca started panicking too, though much less extreme than how Flamberge did.  
“Sister….the king and his knight are gonna kill us!!!” She wasn’t even twirling her hair at this point, just straight pulling on it. “If they find out Kirby went missing- Oh gracious gods!!” Her hands held her face tightly, tensing up in stress. Zan waved her arm for Francisca’s attention, then placed her arms on her sister’s shoulders.  
“Don’t worry,” She said, calmly and confidently “We can and will find Kirby” Her voice shook a little, which made Galacta raise an eyebrow. She was not confident. Not at all.  
She took off ahead of the two sisters, not thinking of asking them to come with. The two came to their senses from a slight freeze of panic and followed promptly. Galacta seemed to be following the sound of Flamberges yelling, her eyes sharp and focused. The rustling trees seemed to grow louder as the wind grew stronger. It..seemed to make her walk faster. Energised and collected. She was still twitchy, but the nice sounds of the forest helped put her mind at ease. 

“Whispyyyy, you never let me have apples!”  
A child’s voice was barely audible from deep in the forest. Galacta though, heard it vividly. Her head turned inquisitively in the direction of the voice, something that confused the two girls with her.  
“Did you hear something?” Francisca started playing with her hair. Galacta didn’t answer, she just started walking in the direction she turned. The grass she walked on flattened with no resistance, her eyes starting to twitch. Zan and Francisca looked to each other, confused.  
“Did she hear something?”  
“I don’t know, I didn’t hear anything” Zan sighed and looked to the fading figure of Galacta. Her wingspan being gargantuan made it much easier to pick her out in a shrouded place, so she decided to follow.  
“Wait, wait, where are we going??” Francisca rushed to catch up, her hair starting to pull again. Galacta then raised her voice from far ahead.  
“I heard him. He’s this way, for sure” She kept marching ahead, focused, almost like a steamroller with a set path.  
This kept up for a solid two minutes, with Galacta occasionally changing directions depending on if she heard a new thing or not. Her pace eventually slowed down, allowing the sisters to catch up. Seemed she ran out of leads. The orange butterfly, having tailed the entire group, sat onto the top of Galacta’s mask, fluttering slightly.  
“GALA….WHEW..” Zan ran up with Francisca, out of breath “Gracious Gods...Mag was right, you run SO fast..”  
“I...wasn’t running” Galacta tilted her head, looking confused. Zan sighed and dropped the subject, looking around at wherever they had ended up. The forest seemed much deeper, much more claustrophobic. It almost felt as if the trees were looking down on them, their branches and leaves thicker, more tightly packed, much lusher. Sunlight barely reached their eyes, it all seemed just that little scarier. 

It all seemed so much worse.

“Ohh gods…” Galacta’s breath grew heavier, with her body regaining a bit of the weight she felt so badly before. She fell to the ground, tensing up all over. The trees seemed to be glaring at her, eyes peering from all around, and gods she hated it.  
“G-Gala!” Fran knelt next to the panicking Galacta, looking up at Zan. “What did Mag do?? When she was like, a kid, they did some therapeutic something to help her calm down??” She said through her teeth, pulling on her hair. Zan pointed to Galacta’s hands, which were massaging each other. Her left thumb was circling across the back of her right hand, her breathing deep but much more regulated.  
“I…” She said, after a minute of quiet “I need to take a break. Can we...stop here…? I’ll go if I hear anything else…”  
“Of course! Should- should we sit down here too?” Zan asked, kneeling next to her sister.  
“Do...do what you like” The knight curled up, trying to keep her breath in check. The two priestesses sat by the knight, looking up at the environment around them. Galacta seemed to be focusing on the details. Birds chittering, leaves blowing, the textures in said leaves, whatever the hell the birds were chittering about. Then, Galacta said something that was out of nowhere.

“..Sorry about before, by the way” She muttered, staring idly at a yellow bird that seemed to be swearing violently. Or whatever birds considered violent swearing.  
“Hm?” Zan’s head raised.  
“I just...I was tired...and Magolor had only just shown up… I couldn’t take so many new revelations at once…Finding out you guys were alive, I think that cut something barely hanging on”  
“Well, that’s pretty metaphorical! You certainly acquired a way with words these past millennia.” Zan joked. Galacta let out a ‘tch’ sound and turned her head to the side.  
“...How have you been? How’s Dreamland been?”  
“Treated me better than I expected. Buncha weirdos, to be sure, but they didn’t kill me or call to kill me so I’ll take what I can get” She joked, looking back up to the dark forest leaves.  
“Bunch of weirdos?”  
“Yeah, what are they, a young child that can eat anything, a self-proclaimed king penguin, a batman cosplayer with a warship, a teen with weapons that a teen should not be able to have, what else…” The pink knight looked to the grass, with the butterfly starting to circle around her. She gathered her thoughts for just a second. Bunch of weirdos, but somehow, they worked. A heap of coincidence, some work on everyone’s ends and a lot of cataclysmic threats to their planet made that bunch of weirdos the happiest family she had ever seen.  
Galacta’s bunch of weirdos? A traumatised knight, a scientist egg, three priestesses and a cult leader? What had happened to them?  
They all died.  
Their planet blew up, and they all died.  
A small chuckle escaped Galacta’s lips, as she reconstructed this thought. No. They aren’t dead, they aren’t dead at all.  
They _were_ dead. It wasn’t easy to think about, since her mind was made up thousands of years ago. But they _were_ dead. Now they’re back. It was as simple as that.

Galacta couldn’t help but laugh slightly. How foolish had she been? So pent up about death, lashing at anyone that held a weapon against her, some vain effort to distract herself, or ride the high of destruction. Foolish young Galacta! They were dead, and now they’re alive! You can open your eyes, Gala!  
“Uhm...Galacta?” Zan snapped her back to reality “What's...with the laughing?  
“Oh...hah...just some thoughts. I guess I’m just really glad to see you guys again” Galacta laid down on the grass, staring right into the flickering light above. The butterfly landed on her mask and rested there, its wings only barely moving. “You ever just feel like, the life that you’ve been living, it was all completely pointless or something?” She brought up with an unfitting smile.  
“Gee that’s...a bit dark” Francisca held her hair nervously, looking away.  
“Eh. I guess!” She sat up, a smile still plastered on her face. She simultaneously felt horrible and amazing, which was the WEIRDEST combination of emotions. Such tonal whiplash. She stuck to the amazing part, a weight that she carried had dropped to the depths of space, all because her bunch of weirdos were still alive and kicking.  
The horrible feeling then started to sink in. So many other halcandrans were wiped out, hell, an entire generation of peacemakers, gone just because she wasn’t quick enough, and then had a hissy fit. Gods, if she could take her younger self by the neck and WRING the life out of her, you wouldn’t have to pay her to do it.  
More of these thoughts started clouding Galacta’s head, as she felt her body tense up again. Oh, gods, not agai-

“KIRBY’S HERE!! I FOUND HIM!!”  
Flamberges booming voice could be heard for miles, hell, lightyears. It made Galacta jolt upwards, the butterfly taking flight in retaliation. The critter then started flying to the origin of the voice, which Gala took to following quickly.  
Zan and Francisca were already racing ahead, knowing that the sun had started to set, and the light was fading from Dreamland for the day. A clearing opened, through grass and sticks and half-eaten apples, showing Flamberge, Kirby, and that weird ass eye tree Whispy, all sitting together. Apples, eaten and uneaten, were strewn around the area.  
Galacta could do nothing but sigh. Sigh almost happily. On the other hand.  
“Kirby!! Where have you been, we’ve- we’ve been looking all over!”  
“I’ve been with Whispy!! I don’t know where the ball is though..”  
“...It’s ok. Meta Knight and the king are probably worried sick about you, let’s just get you home” Galacta smiled, multiple orange butterflies now circling her. Kirby leapt up, giggling, running to the three girls. Flamberge got up, stumbling slightly, and bowed to Whispy before waving him goodbye. The tree smiled, its leave suddenly bristling. Seems to be a wave back.  
The group left the forest together, gatherings of butterflies pecking at the dying apples left there. The dying apples, just those ones.  
Good for the environment at least.

* * *

“Where. Have. You. Been”  
A stern-looking Meta terrified the three sisters, they shivered while clutching each other tightly. Galacta stood off to the side, leaning on a wall while checking her non-existent nails, with a shit-eating smirk on her face. Zan cranked her head over to face her, and she seethed through her chattering teeth “HELP US”  
“Why? You guys were the ones that lost Kirby” She looked up, her shit-eating grin in full effect. “I was zoning out in the forest, and you interrupted, and I got dragged in!”  
“Curse you, Galactic Knight….” Zan sighed through her teeth, her head cranking back to Meta Knight. Dedede had already gone to put Kirby to bed, so thankfully HE wasn’t here either. Oh, that was the worst-case scenario.  
Meta sighed, turning away. His tension seemed to release, as the sisters stopped shaking, and separated slightly. It was almost as if he had a force chokehold on them or something. Did he have psychic powers? Galacta would have to ask later.  
“Its no use getting mad now, Kirby’s in bed, calm yourself Meta…” he reassured himself, which was a bit of an odd sight. Galacta looked up from her imaginary nail observing to view what was happening. All their voices began to be blotted out by Galacta’s thoughts, her little observations on everyone in the room. Batman was in his armour for some gods unknown reason, maybe a night patrol or something? Heh...knight patrol…  
Galacta started walking off, heading for her guest room. She was hoping to get her weapons tomorrow, after all, Mag was finally here and they knew their shit when it came to these materials.  
“Hey! Galacta!” A voice called for her from below. Oh gods, batman. “Magolor wanted to see you at some point by the way. Something about butterflies”  
Butterflies?  
“Uh...Okay..? Do they want to see me like, today, or can I sleep first?” Galacta responded, halfway up the stairs.  
“Probably sooner rather than later. They looked...worried” Meta looked to the side awkwardly.  
“So they’re like, shitting themself, got it, where are they?” She said this in rapid succession, making it harder to comment on the earlier statements. They kinda deserved a comment.  
“Uhhh, I saw Magolor in the reception room before, maybe they’re still there?” Meta tried to finish his sentence, but by the words ‘reception room’ Galacta had disappeared from the room. She was...fast. She was really fast.

Galacta slowly opened the door, to see Magolor sat close to the fireplace. Noises of a pencil writing quite roughly in a paper book filled the air, along with the nice crackling of the fire. The sounds of the scene were just so nice, she didn’t exactly want to ruin it. Mag wanted to see her though, so walking in she went.  
“Oh, Gala! Just in time!” Mag smiled, looking back from the direct glow of the fire.  
“Doesn’t it hurt your eyes to look constantly at that? Fire is just, REALLY bright”  
“I find it relaxing, watching the flames move and dance. Hypnotic, almost”  
“Gods, you ARE old” Galacta laughed, sitting down and relishing slightly in Magolors turmoil from this comment. “Hey, you call me your daughter, I get to call you old”  
Magolor sighed, laughing a bit along with her, and got up from the fireplace. They placed the book they were so incessantly sketching and/or writing in on the table between them and sat down. Magolor looked…a little concerned. Things were never good when Magolor looked a little concerned  
“There’s been some...concerning sightings around Dreamland since you’ve shown up. Not to worry you, but have you seen many butterflies around?”  
“Uhh..” Galacta took a moment to think “There’s been this orange butterfly following me around for gods know how long. I never really thought much of the little guy though..”  
“Hm. Understandable. I’m only asking because...I just have this horrible feeling about the thing. I might ask around about it in the morning, surely SOMEONES seen these butterflies before”  
“Good call. I can’t tell you much really because I don’t know much, but if they start bothering me again I’ll see if they can talk” Galacta outstretched onto the couch she was sitting on, nearly lying down. “You think I’d be okay to sleep here tonight…? I… I can’t be assed to move back upstairs”  
“And you call me old…” Magolor muttered, smiling. “I’m sure it’s fine, I’ve slept in here before and got no repercussions. My visit with Marx was...a chaotic one” They laughed a little, getting up from the couch.

“Marx? I think Dedede said something about him...What’s up with him?” Galacta asked, sounding sleepier with each word.  
“A good friend of mine, met him after I fled Halcandra. Cosmic jester type guy, he’s the one that actually told me about Kirby specifically”  
“So he knows Kirby too?”  
“Yup. Its...a long story. Similar to my whole master crown thing, but I apologised for that with a theme park, so it’s fine!”  
Galacta dozily chuckled, her eyelids getting very heavy. “A theme park? I’m learning something new about you every day…” Her head fell onto the couch, exhaustion overtaking her. Her eyelids fell, trying to think about white noise so no other thoughts could come out and start ragging on her. Magolor smiled, tucking their cloak over their face a little more. They spotted the blanket Galacta was using before, neatly folded next to the fireplace. They picked it up, feeling the texture and staring at the small patterns of stars. The blanket tumbled out of its folded state, becoming a large neat square under the influence of gravity. The scientist looked over to the knight curled up on the couch, clutching the edge and breathing deeply. Curled up while latched onto something, Magolor still remembers her sleeping on their workbench holding whatever trinket she picked from the tools that were around her.  
Galacta felt the softness of the blanket being tucked over her, and then heard the sound of a door opening.  
“Night, Gala” Magolor looked back for one more second, and then closed the door behind them. The last thing they heard from that room was Galacta’s half-asleep voice.  
“Night, Mag”

The scientist stood just in front of the grand castle entrance, watching the stars mingle and glow with each other. They understood why Galacta looked at this night sky so much, it was downright beautiful. So much was going on, so many planets meshing, stars burning, comets flying. Yet, it all worked together like a perfectly crafted painting. 

_“She loves this sky, I see her staring at it all the time”_

Voices. A chorus of voices shot through the still air, making Magolor jump. To little surprise, they turned to find an orange butterfly dancing by the castle doors. Its wings glowed brighter than any star, and it carried a little piece of apple. 

_“You know her quite well, no?”_

Magolor didn’t know how to answer. They had many suspicions about this butterfly, most of them being quite mediocre. Each one was getting crossed out the longer this conversation went on. 

_“Come on, the question shouldn’t be too hard to answer! The mage of science that took in a newly created god, you must be at least familiar with her!”_

The chorus mocked, Magolor gritted their teeth.  
“What’s it to you? Who ARE you?!” Magolor grew hostile quite quickly, their fist clenched.

_“Woah Woah, chill it Eggman! No need to get hardboiled!”_

This chorus cackled lightly, the butterfly fluttering up to a rather annoyed Mag.  
“Who. Are. You.” They repeated, huffing.

_“I am just someone passing by while on the job. Just so happens that your Galacta and my job tend to cross paths frequently. Nothing more, nothing less”_

Mag knew there was more to this, so much more. But prying felt like a bad idea. Something deep in their gut suggested this being was not something to be messed with.  
Bad idea?  
Magolor was about nothing but bad ideas.  
Fuck it.  
“Cross paths? What the hell is your job?!”  
The butterfly stopped in his place, hovering for a moment.

_“Don’t you know to respect the dead, Magolor?”_

Oh fuck

The butterfly took off to the sky without another word, leaving the mage to eat dust.  
“HEY!! ANSWER THE QUESTION?! THE HELL ARE YOU?!”  
No answer came. Magolor looked to the ground in a mixed bag of anger and concern. They didn’t want to consider this theory, but it was looking to be more and more true.  
Magolor considered a lot as they walked down to their guest room, their mind racing with horrors and events. Tales of an orange butterfly that followed death had circled the galaxy for centuries. Nobody knew much about it, it only followed where death was rampant. Some say it was a grim reaper figure, taking passed souls to the next life. Others say it merely relished in the sight of death.  
Galacta, for lack of better terms, had caused a lot of death. It was sure that destroying planets and becoming one of the most feared things in the galaxy came with a body count. If Galacta went somewhere, death was sure to follow, and where death was, that orange butterfly was guaranteed to be around too.  
Magolor had only heard one name for it in their time across the cosmos, it seemed to be the one piece of information everyone agreed on. As they tucked themself into bed, preparing for another sleepless night, that one name was the fear running through their mind.

Morpho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW, that was a ride!  
> Atlas projecting their autism AGAIN? NOOOOOOOoooOOOO whatever would make you THINK that? /s  
> Thank you for reading ALL of that, fun fact my google doc kept crashing bc of how long it was getting lmao  
> In the next chapter, some more lighthearted fun, slice of life stuff yknow? I have to give y'all a break after all THAT  
> As always, comments and kudos are HIGHLY appreciated!


	15. Clowning Around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS DONE ITS DONE   
> Did NOT intend for Marx to appear here at first, but honestly, it kinda made sense. Plus we can get marxolor content so who's complaining?  
> Also, IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY (at the time of publishing) so HERES THE GIFT  
> Hope you all enjoy!

Galacta had sprawled out on the couch, a very different position from her tucked up pose when she first fell asleep. The blanket had nearly fallen off, Galacta wasn’t exactly a still sleeper. The first thing she noticed when her eyes finally cracked open was that her vision was slightly obscured. Feeling her face, she pulled a note that was stuck to her head. Her vision was still blurred from such a heavy sleep, so it took a moment to discern what the note said.  
“Left your breakfast...on the table…” She read aloud, her voice croaking slightly. The handwriting looked neat, but kind of unreadable. “Hope you had a good sleep...the egg also found something...that belonged to you…”  
She sighed, her arm dropped to the floor, barely touching it from the couch. The note scraped the carpet, making a nearly inaudible flicking sound. The fire had been put out, now the silence of the room was much more audible. She lay there for a moment, her brain wiping away the thought of breakfast, getting sleep or anything ‘the egg’ got her. A mix of white noise and bain static filled her head instead. She called this ‘thinking nothing’. It was, actually something, but nothing of substance. No images, no words, not even any concepts. Just pure bullshit and nothing.   
She finally bothered to turn her head to the side, looking to the blurry table with several slightly incomprehensible objects. The shapes and colours tuned themselves slightly, Galacta Knight could just make out what was a quaint little plate of small pancakes, strawberries and cream. It looked really good, if only Galacta could sit up to eat it. Then her vision finally fully cleared up. She could actually see across the room, thank god. What she saw behind those pancakes was strewn across the table, its figure so recognisable to Galacta.  
A bright pink electric guitar.

“HOLY FUCK!!!!!!” Her scream rang through the entire castle.  
“Told you it was a good idea” Magolor giggled in the dining room, going back to their own blueberry pancakes.

She was overjoyed, yet even that was an understatement. She had shot up from her exhausted resting position, her entire mood had shifted in fact. Something was just filling her head with indescribable amounts of joy, and it was definitely the sight of the familiar guitar.  
Shaky hands took the guitar from the table, mixed with some form of happy noises coming from Galacta. A stammering mix of ‘ya’ and ‘sweet’. Her feet tapped on the carpet rapidly as she analysed the guitar, taking a close look at every sticker, every chip in the paint, every little bit of graffiti.   
Yep. It was hers.  
She squealed and clutched the guitar to her chest, giggling. She almost became a different person, holding her instrument like a little girl would hold her blanket. This thing got so much use back in the day. She had never really played in a band, sadly, but she would oftentimes practice in the street, in the music hall, wherever she had a bit of alone time. And she had gotten REALLY good at it.   
Her hands adjusted, as she was now holding the guitar a lot more traditionally. She messed around with the guitar’s tuning keys, strumming a few chords to get the tuning right. The atmosphere felt so suddenly familiar, a comforting aura wafting through the air. Definitely because of the guitar. God, she loved this thing so much. 

The amp was then discovered just behind the table, she rushed to hook things up quickly. Sitting back on the couch, her guitar was wired up.   
“One two, one two, five six seven eight!”  
A simple melody kicked up, her playing felt so natural, almost like second nature. Seemed to be some metal song she remembered playing long ago. Though, without any drums or singing. Nevertheless, it felt good to hear it again, it felt even better to play it. 

“Miss Galacta!!”  
Her guitar playing halted, as she jumped in surprise. Kirby was on the other end of the couch, looking over the armrest.  
“Oh- Kirby! What are you doing here…?” Galacta settled down after the shock, putting the guitar on her lap   
“I heard the guitar. Magolor said you’d play it like, the second you got it” The kid ran to sit on the couch opposite. Galacta only now noticed he was holding a plush toy in the shape of a star. Did...did he just wake up?  
“Ah- yeah, I really like this guitar, so I wanted to play it as soon as. Did I wake you..?” She asked nervously, smiling slightly.  
“I don’t mind, the guitar playing was nice!” Kirby smiled with half-open eyes. He looked...quite tired. Even if Kirby said he didn’t mind, Galacta felt guilt rising within her. She could almost feel the distant malice of this kid’s dads. “Magolor was super happy to dig it up, they said it was in the Lor!”  
“The...the Lor?”  
“Mhm! Mag has a whole stash of old items in there. Loads of ancient things!” Kirby had started eyeing Galacta’s pancakes. Old items on the Lor? She’d need to dig around in there. “Can I have one of your pancakes..?” Kirby then asked, looking up at her.  
“Uh- Go ahead? Leave one for me, but go to town otherwise!”  
“YAY!!” Kirby didn’t wait another second. Before long, almost all of the pancakes were gone. He didn’t take any of the strawberries or cream, he did ONLY say the pancakes. The child looked a lot more satisfied, chewing with a happy face while rocking to and fro. When he was done eating (which was remarkably quick) he wiped his face with his hand and rested back slightly. Eating that much would probably make you exhausted

“Miss Galacta?” Galacta looked up, to see a slightly sad looking Kirby.  
“Uh- Yeah? What’s up?”  
“I’m...sorry for hurting you so much in that fight…” Kirby looked to the floor quite guiltily.  
“Oh, gods- no it’s fine! I’ve been roughed up WAY more than that, hah!” She tried to soften things out, to no avail.  
“Yeah, I know. Magolor told me a bit about what happened to you. I couldn’t hear too much because it sounded really scary. You fought void as well?”  
Galacta felt a pit in her stomach. Something felt so hollow all of a sudden. Void.  
“Yeah...I did...I fought it alone…”  
“ALONE?!” Kirby looked shocked, standing up while still on the couch “How?! That must’ve been so hard!!”  
“Ahah, I don’t really like thinking about it. But those heart spears and my resolve did have their roles” She scratched the back of her head, trying to swallow down an impossibly sick feeling within her.   
“Hm… I’ll stop talking about it” Kirby then sat back down, looking a little guilted himself. Galacta attempted to soften things, but Kirby spoke again before she could say anything. “Meta told me its not good to think about sad things when you wake up. I don’t wanna make you sad…” Kirby mumbled, looking to his fidgeting hands. Oh, gods, this kid was lovely.   
“Meta’s right about that. Gods know I would’ve loved that advice when I was younger” Galacta laughed a little awkwardly. She had rested her guitar beside her on the couch. The sitting position she was in was...less than conventional, the armrest now being used as a rest for her legs as she lay down. Kirby seemed to have the exact same problem, his sitting position wasn’t even on the couch. Instead, he had strewn himself over the backrest, his arms laying either side.   
“Hey...you understood me way quicker than Dedede or Bandana, or anyone like that.”  
“I did, didn’t I? That’s pretty weird....”  
“Usually it’s like, three weeks of them only hearing babbling. Why do they only hear babbling?” Kirby looked pretty frustrated, falling off the backrest and onto the soft couch, where he was actually supposed to sit.   
“Did Meta understand you quicker too?” Galacta turned her head, trying to piece something together.  
“Yeah actually...it was super weird!”  
“Maybe it’s a species thing? I mean, we’re all the same species, so I imagine its easier for us to understand each other”  
“Spee...sees?” Kirby looked over to Galacta, confused.  
“Oh, it means we’re the same kind of being”  
“I’ll ask Magolor about that…”  
“Good call”

They both sat in silence for a bit. The guitar had fallen a bit, now lying flat on the couch instead of nicely on the backrest. Kirby was climbing about the couch, like any high energy kid. Galacta kind of envied that, how carefree and cheerful Kirby seemed.   
“..Quick question Kirby, I’ve heard a lot of talk about Marx?”  
Kirby’s attention shot up, he immediately got in a position to listen.  
“Marx?? My jester friend?”  
“..Yeah...that guy...What’s he like? Magolor talks about him a lot and I kinda wanna know what he’s about”  
“Well, Marx is this cosmic jester that told me about the sun and moon fighting! But he actually got the sun and moon to fight, so I would summon this REALLY BIG wish comet called Galactic Nova, and then he wished to take over Planet Popstar!!”  
“He sounds...pleasant” She joked, making sure the sarcastic tone in her voice was heavily recognisable.   
“He only did it because he was hungry though” Kirby sighed. This comment shocked Galacta nearly out of her skin.  
“HUNGRY?!”  
“Mhm. He’s a good friend, if you keep him fed. Good at catch for someone with no hands!”  
Well, that was a boatload of confusing information. Galacta didn’t know what to bring up first. Tried to take over popstar? Isn’t violent when fed? Has no hands? These confusing thoughts knocked around her head cartoonishly, Kirby could tell she was a bit baffled.  
“I’m sure if you met him, you’d get it. He’s a good friend of Magolor, so they’ll probably introduce you to him!” Kirby said friend in a tone that Galacta couldn’t decipher the meaning of, but it definitely meant more than just ‘friend’. 

“Yeah, I told you about her, Marx! She’s alive and relatively well”  
Speak of the devil and he comes knocking. Kirby and Galacta overheard a conversation from the next room, probably a phone call. Or whatever contraption Magolor called a phone anyway. Magolor was calling Marx. About Galacta presumably. She felt kind of weird, being talked about in a conversation she was nowhere near involved in. Nevertheless, Kirby and Galacta fell silent, attempting to eavesdrop.  
“YES, I know she’s like a planet levelling destroyer...oh very funny!....mhm?...Well, she’s softened up quite quickly, which both surprised me and didn’t, she’s quite emotionally flexible...Dude, you’d be surprised!”  
Something told Galacta that she wouldn’t like to hear the rest of this conversation. She buried her head in her knees, mentally screaming. Seems dropping the ‘purring’ secret did NOTHING to shut them up about the dad thing. But, she kept on listening. Mainly because Magolor was definitely right outside, and walking out of the room would mean running into them.   
“...oh! So, soon then? Should I let the others know?...yeah I’ll tell them to get food ‘n stuff...Yesss, the parfait, your favourite...I know I know….Oh, your moms an oversized pancake!”  
At least Marx won’t be destroying the place, he has food.  
“Okay okay...see you in ten? Can you get here that quickly?....mhm?...Okay, whatever you say. Love you!”  
The call seemed to have ended. Kirby and Galacta stared at each other, processing what they just heard.

“Are...are they dating?”   
“I KNEW IT!!” Kirby shot up. “Bandee owes me TWENTY! I KNEW IT!!” Seems Magolor and Marx’s relationship was a hot topic around here. The pink kid looked quite accomplished, sitting back down with a smug look on his face.   
“Uhhh...okay…” Galacta had NO idea how to respond to any of that. Marx was coming round, okay, that’s an opportunity to finally get to know this jester. But the clown was dating her da- Magolor? This was something she needed to see.   
Magolor wandered into the reception room, yawning a bit.  
“Oh, hey Gala! Hey Kirby!” Magolor noticed the two immediately “Sleep well?”  
“Absolutely” She blinked slowly, implying sarcasm. Magolor giggled and then looked to the guitar resting on the couch.  
“Like what I found? Dug it up from the Lor, what a find honestly! You used to play that thing constantly!”  
“Heh, get ready for sleepless nights again!” Galacta grinned devilishly.   
“Byyyy the way, Marx is coming around later, you know the guy I was talking about last night?”  
“Yeah? Your boyfriend?”  
The room went silent. Kirby snickered.  
“I...need to go to the bathroom!” Magolor excused themself and scurried off, red-faced. Galacta and Kirby looked to each other, snickering slightly as if holding back.  
“OH MY GOD!!” Galacta guffawed, falling onto the couch. Kirby began laughing as well, smacking the couch he was sitting on in an attempt to get a grip.  
“OH GOD....you learn something new every day!” Galacta wheezed, barely sitting at that point. She continued to cackle, her lungs felt like they were going to burst.   
The laughter continued, spreading through the whole room like some laughing virus. Just as Galacta was beginning to recover…

BOOM!!

A loud explosion shook the area. Galacta yelped and tumbled off the couch, hands clasped against her ears. She breathed in through her teeth, stress levels rapidly increasing. Kirby took a quick look outside, then shook his head, and ran to sit by Galacta, who was almost cowering on the floor.  
“That must be Marx,” He kept his voice down, as not to stress her out “His entrances have never been...quiet, don’t worry”  
Galacta simply nodded, trying to regulate her breathing pattern. A few moments later, the two heard a discussion at the front door.  
“MAG!! Good to see ya!” An affectionate shrill of a voice called, it sounded almost cartoonish. No wonder he was called a jester. 

“Nice job with the lawn, dipshit” Magolor giggled. Marx had just flown in from fuck knows in the galaxy, and had made a nice little crater just outside the castle after crashing in at near lightspeed.  
“Best work yet!” The jester smirked, balancing on a colourful ball. Magolor just laughed, letting Marx inside. He kicked away his ball and dropped to his feet. The ball rolled away and made some chaotic crashing sounds from around a corner.  
“...They’ll probably fix that” Magolor sighed, walking with Marx to the kitchen.  
“So how’ve you been?” The clown chirped “It feels like its been AGES since I last saw you!”  
“We saw each other last week, Marxie”  
“I know, I know, but you know how space gets! Y’know, total vacuum, not many planets for light-years, shit like that. Gets lonely!”  
“You should’ve called!”  
“I DID call! You just NEVER answer your phone. Do you ever register numbers? Which ‘unknown caller’ am I Mags?”  
The two laughed, getting to the kitchen. A wide platter of sweet looking food had already been (rather quickly) arranged. The people here knew well: A hungry Marx is not a good one.  
“Aw, SWEET! You guys have got EVERYTHING here! No wonder someone wants to take over Popstar every other week!”  
Magolor and Marx looked at each other absently for a second.  
“Yup….no wonder…” Magolor tried to stop themself from laughing, as Marx (somehow) took the entire platter, balancing it on his head. Marx then materialised another colourful ball beneath him and began balancing on it.

“You absolute madman” Mgaolor sighed.  
“Should I do TWO balls?!”  
“Do it, pussy” Magolor was mostly expecting that to be a joke. To their dismay, Marx tossed another colourful ball underneath him, all while still balancing the food platter. How is he still alive when he makes the dumbest impulse moves like this? Gods only know.   
“Oh my gods- wait- WAIT-” Marx had taken off halfway through Mag’s sentence. Surprisingly, Marx was holding up well, his balance was practically unmatched. The comically evil cackle he was making during this didn’t help his case though.   
Marx then turned around “So where’s the woman of the hour anyway? “  
“Last I saw her, she was in the reception room” Magolor pointed to Marx’s left “Could still be there, with Kirby” Marx had taken off down where Mag had pointed, moving at a worryingly fast speed for someone that was balancing three things at once. Marx kicked the two balls beneath him to push open the door, scaring Kirby inside. Kirby was taking care of Galacta’s guitar and trying his best not to eat her lone pancake.   
“Hey, hey, HEY!” Marx cheered, only for his face to drop when he saw that Galacta wasn’t here. “Hey, wait, where’s Galacta?”  
“She ran off” Kirby sighed “That big explosion made her jump out of her skin…” He had a slightly sad look about him. Magolor walked in just behind Marx, who was pouting slightly.  
“Maaaaag….You never told me she hated explosions!”   
“She’s not the best with loud noises or just sudden events. Last I checked, crashing into a planet at high-speed checks both boxes…” Magolor sighed, then turned to Kirby. “Do you know where she went?”  
“She said something about getting her weapons...I think Meta said they were ready today” Kirby got up from the chair, laying down the guitar “By the way, Miss Galacta said that if anyone but me touches that guitar they’ll be ‘strung up like a pig’. Don’t know what that means but it sounds scary…”  
Marx smiled. Oh, she sounds so fun. 

The jester tossed the platter of food from his head to the small table, and immediately slammed his face into the parfait. Within two minutes, most of it was garbled down.  
“That was...quick, what’s the rush?” Mag asked sitting with a fidgeting Kirby.   
“Gotta see Galacta obviously. Kinda what I came here for!” Marx said through a mouth of parfait and sweet fruits. He finished quickly, but struggled to swallow it all down.   
“Oh fuck- fuck I think I ate too fast” He started spluttering, Magolor’s concern rising quickly.  
“Wait, wait, do you need something??” Magolor tried to finish, but Marx let out a huge wheeze, and a small unceremonious cough right after.  
“...I’m fine” He finally said something, and then started walking back out. Magolor sighed with relief, looking to Kirby. They exchanged a look that said ‘Third time this month’. Kirby waddled out too, going to see if Marx would randomly start choking again. Marx was always a big eater, honestly, he probably rivalled Kirby in that department. Thing is, Kirby has abilities that specifically let him eat huge amounts without needing a break. Marx, however, didn’t, which meant that the odd choke-on-food scare was a more than common occurrence.   
Sometimes Marx would even fake them for shits and giggles, but he’d never go farther than about two coughs, for the sake of Magolors heart. 

Before leaving the room, Mag took a quick look outside, through a small window in the reception room. In the near distance, he saw Galacta, training hard with her newly refurbished lance and shield. She looked incredibly in control at first glance, But Mag could tell she looked quite stressed. This wasn’t unusual, Galacta would often train if she was feeling stressed or strained when she was much younger. Even certain moves she would perform indicated how stressed she was.   
“Yup, that’s a spin slash...she’s not doing too good..” Mag sighed, quite worried. She did have her weapons back at least. The scientist contemplated for a second if they should go to check with her. On one hand, they REALLy wanted to see if she was okay. On the other, it was kind of risky, as she hates attention during times of stress.   
Oh gods  
Marx was already on his way down to her. Guess Mag didn’t need to go.

Galacta fell to her knees, wheezing, exhausted. Why? She’d only been out of training and fighting for a few days, so why was she so exhausted so quickly? She didn’t get to think about this question for much longer, as from the castle she heard the call of a shrill-voiced jester.  
“GALACTA!! IS THAT YOU??” Marx was rolling up on a newly made ball, balancing quite daringly.   
She looked up, her eyelids drooping, a yawn nearly escaping her mouth.  
“Yeah…?” She said absently. It was quickly becoming clearer and clearer why she was so exhausted. Maybe sleeping on the couch wasn’t such a good idea after all.  
“Oh god-” Marx stopped in his tracks just in front of her, looking a bit more than a little concerned. “You...don’t look too good”  
“Is it that obvious?” She smiled sarcastically, her arms up in a shrug. Her arms then dropped along with her face, as she turned back to the ground. She huffed and stood up, stretching quite hard. “You’re Marx, right? You’ve left some impact here from what I’ve seen”  
“Sure did! The little Galactic Nova incident apparently wasn’t so ‘little’ to these popstar folk, but I digress” Marx looked away, dismissive of said ‘Galactic Nova’ incident.   
“Galactic Nova...I named that thing, y’know”   
“Oh, Mag’s told me'' He interrupted “Mag’s told me a loooot about you. To be fair, they only talked about your younger self.”  
“Well, I guess we did separate when I was pretty young...”  
“God, I had a slight hope that you’d still be young. Anyone else that’s heard of you would be TERRIFIED to meet you, it’d be kinda funny if they just came across a tiny you and be terrified!” Marx giggled, kicking the ball away and sitting opposite her.  
“Oh, they should be…” The knight smirked beneath her mask “Even without the whole ‘destroyed void’ thing, I’ve levelled planets before!”  
“Hell YEA!!” Marx then chirped, which was quite unexpected. “How did you do it?? I’ve always wanted to try it out!” he tilted his head, listening intently. This Marx...he’s interesting.  
“...Are you sure you’re with Mag? You two seem...different” She tilted her head in the same direction. Gala was...very confused. Mag had mentioned a few bad incidents they had been involved in, but they seemed mild.  
“You have never really met Magolor then. Guy’s got quite the thing for destruction, reeeaal mad scientist type! Did they ever mention stealing the master crown?”  
“Wait, yes!” She blurted, starting to piece a few things.   
“Well that was a HUUUUGE thing that happened here, poor guy was kind of at their wit’s end. I admit, I was a bit of a bad influence, but it was pretty much their idea!” Marx sighed, a little sad looking. “Like at least my reason for terrorising this place was trivial and funny, Magolors was just kind of sad…”

Galacta couldn’t process what she was hearing. Kind of sad? Master crown? Some of this wasn’t her first time hearing it, but it was just as jarring as every other time.   
“...Dare I ask what was Magolor’s reason?” Galacta’s eyes shifted from the ground to looking right through Marx, which was pretty unnerving.   
“It...might take a while to explain, wouldn’t even know where to begin…”  
“Wait...how do you even know Magolor anyway? You don’t seem Halcandran, and I definitely don’t remember you ever visiting”  
“Ah!” Marx perked up “Now THAT’S a question I can answer! No, I’m not Halcandran, and I’m kind of glad that’s the case considering what happened there. I met Mag after they fled that planet, all distraught and upset, y’know, ‘I’m gonna get revenge’ type shit. Real mad hero they were at that time. Hold on, hold on, may wanna sit more comfortably because this story is INSANE!”  
Galacta, in immediate response, got down from her knees and put down her weapons. Her legs sprawled out, her hands keeping herself upright by resting on the grass behind her.   
“Right, god, it started when...I think just after your planet got voided…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MARX AND MAGOLOR BACKSTORY NEXT LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOo  
> This did take a while to write and I do apologise, but between my birthday and general writers block things have been clogging up my schedule  
> As always, Kudos and Comments are highly appreciated!!  
> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
